30th Anniversary of the First Launched GPS

Some 30 years ago-on February 22 to be précised, the first GPS was launched into space with the launch of NASTAR 1 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. And so it happened that this Feb. 22 was celebrated to mark the occasion.

According to Col. David Madden, GPS Wing Commander at Los Angeles Air Force Base, "the Block I satellites, launched between February 22, 1978, and October 9, 1985, paved the way for an operational system that has revolutionized the way we go to war".

To mark the occasion, Rockwell International made a special "first-day-of-issue" card for each Block I launch and arranged for the Vandenberg AFB post office to stamp them with the date of the launch. The Block I contract, F4701-74-C-0527, was signed in August 1974. The first satellite launch was 42 months later, and the first four satellites launched within the space of a year — all in 1978.

Madden also said that "Next year will see the 20th anniversary of the first officially operational Block II satellite, launched February 14, 1989. Mission II-1 was a momentous occasion, starting the full operational constellation that the world now relies upon for precise navigation signal in space."