First, a little bit of Blue Origin Kremlinology: They are advertising for a crew systems engineer. There are rumors that they are working on a manned suborbital ship but then again there are also rumors that they are working on a transdimensional intergalactic warp drive. Either way, it looks like they want to put humans on it.

Clark Lindsey has an interesting item on the development of GPS, with lessons for RLV development.

...and Derek Lyons starts strong out of the gate with a piece on the business practicalities of space access.

Update a few hours later: Check out Dr. Day's detailed comment on GPS, which is meatier than either my post or the one I linked to. Good Stuff.

The story of GPS development has never, to the best of my knowledge, been told in any detail. I've never seen more than a few pages on its history. It really cries out for a book-length history. But the Air Force has shown little interest in sponsoring books on its space history.

Although the current Air Force is fond of touting the amazing wonders of GPS and taking credit for it , it is true, as Dr. Parkinson notes, that the service continually tried to kill it. And it is also probably true that we could have had a working GPS system a decade earlier than we did. After all, the basic technology was ready by the late 1970s, but the system did not become fully operational until the early to mid 1990s.

GPS was what they used to call, I think, a "golden goose" program. This means that the service knew that it was supported by DoD and Congress, so they would threaten to kill it unless they got money for other stuff. The Navy regularly used to do this with the Trident submarine. They'd say "We are short of cash, so we're going to have to cancel some Trident subs..." Then DoD and more importantly, Congress would put more money into their budget. (This is like the old "buy this magazine or we shoot this dog" trick.)

However, it is worth noting the Air Force's opposition was not crazy. Years ago I knew a guy who handled GPS policy for the Commerce Department. Don't remember his name anymore, but he's one of the most knowledgeable people on GPS policy, which can be very complicated. He was a big advocate of the program and thought that the Air Force should have gotten on the ball much earlier. But he explained that the Air Force had invested in a number of navigation programs up to that time and had a lot of money and equipment invested in them. They were also sufficient for the service's needs. GPS represented a costly way of doing what they were already doing. And it had some drawbacks, such as its vulnerability to jamming. (The service was obsessed with what they called a navigational "black box," meaning that everything the system needed was self-contained on the aircraft and it did not need to rely upon LORAN or outside signals which could be disrupted during World War III.)

What they could not foresee was the system's ability to be used in a lot of other applications, particularly beyond their own limited borders. For instance, who would have thought it necessary for individual Army trucks to have their own navigation system? And nobody could have foreseen all the amazing civilian uses.

Like I said, the history is complex and not prone to easy interpretations. My colleague said that there were some obvious technological developments made in GPS, and some much less obvious ones that also deserve recognition. Apparently the encryption system was an impressive advance for its day, although nobody can talk about that in any detail. He said that NSA deserves almost as much credit for GPS as the Air Force and the Navy, which also played a role.

By the way, as it was told to me, one of Parkinson's biggest contributions was setting aside his own service's interests in order to make GPS happen. He was an Air Force colonel at the time (early 1970s) and he was willing to strike a compromise with the Navy, which had its own competing system.

Dr. Day,

If I understand correctly, you are saying that the Air Forces threats to kill GPS were analog to the famous National Lampoon magazine cover:

"Buy this Magazine or we'll kill this dog!"

Mr. Puckett wrote:
"If I understand correctly, you are saying that the Air Forces threats to kill GPS were analog to the famous National Lampoon magazine cover:"

Reread the last sentence of my third paragraph.

Thanks for the kind words Andy (makes note to make a nice mention of Trans Terrestrial when the oppurtunity arises). I'm trying very hard to concentrate on quality over quantity and to restrain my (in)famous temper.

Dwayne, that's scary! I honestly didn't notice that!

I guess great minds think alike!

On a lighter note, I am pleased to inform all that the National Lampoon Society reports the Dog died a natural death after a long life.

Well, I think you can rule out the transdimensional inergalactic warp drive for Blue Origin :-) According to the blurb on their home page, they are "...currently working to develop a crewed, suborbital launch system that emphasizes safety and low cost of operations."
Crewed suborbital launchers seem to be all the rage, lately.