--- title: The Cold War Project We All Depend On | daily.dev description: An exploration of how GPS technology works, covering the role of atomic clocks orbiting at 20,000km altitude, satellite timing precision, and how a Cold War... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-cold-war-project-we-all-depend-on-rxdwsndvt twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Cold War Project We All Depend On | daily.dev og:description: An exploration of how GPS technology works, covering the role of atomic clocks orbiting at 20,000km altitude, satellite timing precision, and how a Cold War... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-cold-war-project-we-all-depend-on-rxdwsndvt og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/rXDWsnDVT.png og:image:alt: The Cold War Project We All Depend On og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Cold War Project We All Depend On **[SK NEXUS](https://daily.dev/sources/sknexus)** · [@ybabur](https://daily.dev/ybabur) · 1 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary An exploration of how GPS technology works, covering the role of atomic clocks orbiting at 20,000km altitude, satellite timing precision, and how a Cold War military project became foundational infrastructure for apps like Uber, Google Maps, banking, aviation, and disaster response. ## Content Most of us use GPS dozens of times every day without ever thinking about it. It powers every app from Uber, Google Maps, and even banks now. The tech just works. You open an app, tap a button, and somehow your phone knows exactly where you are. I wanted to learn more about how GPS actually works. Turns out the answer involves atomic clocks floating 20,000 kilometers above our heads. It involved satellites moving through space at thousands of kilometers per hour, and timing so precise that being off by a fraction of a second could put you off by miles. What started as a Cold War military project quietly became one of the most important technologies of modern civilization. From ride-hailing and food delivery to aviation, agriculture, banking, and disaster response, GPS is the invisible system holding together much of the world around us. And honestly, once you understand what's happening every time that little blue dot appears on your phone, it's hard not to appreciate just how insane this technology really is. You can checkout my article below to learn more: [https://www.sknexus.org/p/the-science-behind-gps](https://www.sknexus.org/p/the-science-behind-gps) ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The physics of GPS](https://daily.dev/posts/the-physics-of-gps-8zdqlhiza) · Adafruit Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [GPS is vulnerable to jamming—here’s how we might fix it](https://daily.dev/posts/gps-is-vulnerable-to-jamming-here-s-how-we-might-fix-it-gefgxoz6y) · Ars Technica · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The GPS III Rollout Is Almost Complete, But What Is It?](https://daily.dev/posts/the-gps-iii-rollout-is-almost-complete-but-what-is-it--hwmjyhqir) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-cold-war-project-we-all-depend-on-rxdwsndvt) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-cold-war-project-we-all-depend-on-rxdwsndvt","headline":"The Cold War Project We All Depend On","text":"An exploration of how GPS technology works, covering the role of atomic clocks orbiting at 20,000km altitude, satellite timing precision, and how a Cold War military project became foundational infrastructure for apps like Uber, Google Maps, banking, aviation, and disaster response.","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-cold-war-project-we-all-depend-on-rxdwsndvt","datePublished":"2026-06-13T12:52:28.027Z","dateModified":"2026-06-13T12:53:08.425Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Yousaf","url":"https://daily.dev/ybabur","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--34_jfZHA--/f_auto/v1763821208/avatars/avatar_Yu3kN5Eaj67v5X0qjZfW4?_a=BAMAK+ZW0","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":1690}},"image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--hEpvSOQm--/f_auto/v1781355148/posts/rXDWsnDVT?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://daily.dev/squads/sknexus","name":"SK NEXUS"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"SK NEXUS","item":"https://daily.dev/squads/sknexus"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Cold War Project We All Depend On"}]} ```