Category Archives: Reviews

“The authors do the impossible, making an intricate technological advance fascinating to read. They offer an informative and well researched account of how GPS proved its worth even before the system was complete. The results it provided in the Persian Gulf War were truly revolutionary. With this seemingly miraculous kick-off, GPS technology was almost immediately integrated throughout military systems. Entrepreneurs immediately picked up on this, and made it equally successful in commerce.”

—Walter J. Boyne, author of How the Helicopter Changed Modern Warfare and former director of the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution

“A fine and entertaining story of the origins of the Global Positioning System, a consequential space-age technology that has affected the lives of hundreds of millions in war and peace. Non-specialist readers will easily understand principles of this sophisticated system and appreciate difficulties of GPS development by visionary individuals.”

—Mike Gruntman, PhD, professor of astronautics at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles and author of Blazing The Trail: The Early History Of Spacecraft And Rocketry

“Here, at last, Richard Easton and Eric Frazier present in plain, simple language how a positioning, navigation and timing system originally developed for military purposes―one that Air Force Space Command continues to operate and maintain―became essential for countless civil and commercial activities around the world. The authors deftly place the concept and development of GPS within two broader historical contexts:  navigation and robotic spaceflight.”

— from the foreword by Rick W. Sturdevant, PhD, Deputy Director of History, Air Force Space Command