GIS in Action 2026

In 1957, physicists at Johns Hopkins listened to Sputnik’s radio beacon and unintentionally laid the groundwork for satellite navigation. What followed was one of the most ambitious engineering efforts in modern history: a constellation of satellites, atomic clocks, control stations, and launch campaigns that has evolved for more than four decades.This presentation traces the development of satellite positioning from its Cold War origins through the construction of GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou, examining how each constellation was architected, launched, and sustained in orbit, how military systems evolved into global civilian infrastructure, and how the underlying geometry, atomic timekeeping, and signal architecture combine to deliver the positions we depend on daily. It then explores the augmentation systems built on that foundation, including RTK, PPK, WAAS, and PPP, the technologies that push raw GNSS accuracy from meters to centimeters. Each is defined by its own tradeoffs, infrastructure requirements, and ideal applications.
Looking ahead, the session turns to what comes next: GPS III’s new civil signals, LEO-based augmentation that could upend the base station model, and the spoofing and jamming vulnerabilities of a system the modern world cannot function without. Together, these developments reveal GNSS not as a finished technology, but as an evolving global utility.
By understanding the history and architecture behind GNSS, geospatial professionals gain clearer insight into both the power and the limitations of the coordinates they collect, and a better sense of how positioning itself is being redesigned for the decades ahead.