GPS artist's impression

Artist's impression of a US Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) Block-2/2A satellite. Satellite navigation is currently based on the GPS and Russian GLONASS military satellite networks. Europe is proposing its own Galileo civil system (also designated as the GNSS-2 Global Navigation Satellite System-2) to be fully operational by 2008, interoperable with but independent of GPS. [Image Date: 1998] [98.10.016-001]