when did gps become available for civilian use
1980s
title: GPS navigation device text: worldwide navigational system which eventually became known as the GPS (global positioning system). In 1983, in the wake of the tragedy of the downing of the Korean Airlines Flight 007, an aircraft which was shot down while in Soviet airspace due to a navigational error, President Reagan made the navigation capabilities of the existing military GPS system available for dual civilian use. However, civilian use was initially only a slightly degraded "Selective Availability" positioning signal. This new availability of the US military GPS system for civilian use required a certain technical collaboration with the private sector for some time, before title: Global Positioning System text: though these technologies can enhance the usefulness of the GPS positioning information. The GPS provides critical positioning capabilities to military, civil, and commercial users around the world. The United States government created the system, maintains it, and makes it freely accessible to anyone with a GPS receiver. The GPS project was launched by the U.S. Department of Defense in 1973 for use by the United States military and became fully operational in 1995. It was allowed for civilian use in the 1980s. Advances in technology and new demands on the existing system have now led to efforts to modernize the title: Global Positioning System text: systems, integrating ideas from several predecessors, including classified engineering design studies from the 1960s. The U.S. Department of Defense developed the system, which originally used 24 satellites. It was initially developed for use by the United States military and became fully operational in 1995. Civilian use was allowed from the 1980s. Roger L. Easton of the Naval Research Laboratory, Ivan A. Getting of The Aerospace Corporation, and Bradford Parkinson of the Applied Physics Laboratory are credited with inventing it. The design of GPS is based partly on similar ground-based radio-navigation systems, such as LORAN and the Decca Navigator, developed in title: GPS navigation device text: indicate: As with many other technological breakthroughs of the latter 20th century, the modern GPS system can reasonably be argued to be a direct outcome of the Cold War of the latter 20th century. The multibillion-dollar expense of the program was initially justified by military interest. In 1960, the US Navy put into service its Transit satellite based navigation system to aid in ship navigation. Between 1960 and 1982, as the benefits were been shown, the US military consistently improved and refined its satellite navigation technology and satellite system. In 1973, the US military began to plan for a comprehensive title: GPS navigation device text: it could become a commercial reality. In 1989, Magellan Navigation Inc. unveiled its Magellan NAV 1000, the world’s first commercial handheld GPS receiver. These units initially sold for approximately US$2,900 each. In 2000, the Clinton administration removed the military use signal restrictions, thus providing full commercial access to the US GPS satellite system. In 1990, Mazda's Eunos Cosmo was the first production car in the world with a built-in GPS navigation system. In 1991, Mitsubishi introduced GPS car navigation on the Mitsubishi Debonair (MMCS: Mitsubishi Multi Communication System). In 1997, a navigation system using Differential GPS was developed as a