GPS Opened to Civilian Use
GPS Opened to Civilian Use refers to the U.S. decision announced on September 16, 1983, after the downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, to make the military Global Positioning System available to civilians free of charge.
What happened and why it matters
The 1983 decision made satellite positioning a free public utility, which is why trucks, delivery vans and phones can report their location today. President Ronald Reagan's announcement followed the Soviet shootdown of a Korean airliner that had strayed off course on September 1, 1983. The system was completed in the 1990s, but civilian signals were deliberately degraded by a feature called Selective Availability until President Bill Clinton ordered it turned off in May 2000, which improved civilian accuracy roughly tenfold. Fleet telematics, live package tracking, route optimization for drivers and geotagged proof of delivery all rest on that open signal.