This is the man who created GPS! 📲🗺️

29 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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In this narrated segment, Dan Novaes explains how Roger L. Easton transformed satellite tracking into a global positioning system. In the late 1950s, scientists measured frequency shifts of satellite radio signals to locate the satellites themselves. Easton flipped this idea, proposing that satellites could broadcast precise timing signals that ground receivers use to compute their own location. He helped design a network of satellites transmitting synchronized timestamps, enabling receivers to triangulate their position. This concept evolved into the Global Positioning System (GPS), which today underpins navigation for aircraft, ships, cars, and smartphones, allowing billions of people to know their exact location anywhere on Earth.

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Roger L. Easton helped develop the technology that allows billions of people to navigate the world. In the late 1950s, scientists were tracking satellites orbiting Earth. They noticed something interesting: as satellites moved, their radio signals changed frequency. By measuring this shift, scientists could calculate where the satellite was. Roger Easton asked a different question: what if the idea worked the other way around? Instead of tracking satellites from Earth, satellites could help determine positions on Earth. Easton helped design a system where multiple satellites transmitted timing signals. A receiver on the ground could calculate its exact location based on those signals. The The system eventually became GPS. Today, GPS guides airplanes, ships, cars, and smartphones around the world. Roger Easton didn't just improve navigation. He helped create a system that allows people to know exactly where they are almost anywhere on Earth.