EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSIT, THE NAVY NAVIGATION SATELLITE SYSTEM

In the immediate aftermath of Sputnik, the Transit system (a.k.a. Navy Navigation Satellite System, NNSS, NAVSAT) was invented by F. T. McClure, W. H. Guier, and G. C. Weiffenbach. Under the leadership of R. B. Kershner, the system was developed at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory over the six-year period of 1958-1964. The system pioneered the use of satellites for ocean navigation and land surveying and reduced the arts of surveying and navigation to a solved technical problem with a firm scientific basis. This paper is intended to sketch how the system works - its undergirding principles - and to describe the early (1958-64) development of the system.