Gladys West reviewing GPS satellite data, 1985. Infrastructure rarely looks glamorous.
Before navigation apps, there was discipline.
You check Maps without thinking.
Drop a pin.
Send your location.
Track a package.
Call an Uber.
The GPS constellation orbiting Earth. Precision in motion.
All of it depends on precision most people never see.
That precision traces back to Gladys West, a mathematician whose work helped lay the foundation for GPS.
Before GPS became public, it was military tech. And before it could function, scientists had to understand the exact shape of the Earth, not a cartoon globe but the real thing. Its curves. Its gravitational shifts. Its irregularities.
If the Earth is measured wrong, navigation fails.
A geoid model — the true mathematical shape of Earth. GPS depends on this.
West worked in the 1950s and 60s running complex geodetic calculations at the Naval Proving Ground. She was one of the few Black women in that environment. No spotlight. No viral moment. Just math and discipline.
Her modeling of satellite data became essential to what would evolve into the Global Positioning System.
GPS isn’t magic.
It’s infrastructure.
And infrastructure doesn’t scream. It holds.
GPS satellites don’t guess. They calculate.
At State Of Flux, we talk about movement; however, movement without coordinates is chaos.
West represents something deeper: precision under pressure. Focus in rooms that don’t amplify you. Building systems that outlast noise.
Today, GPS powers:
- Google Maps
- Apple Maps
- Ride-share apps
- Delivery logistics
- Military navigation
- Financial time synchronization
It’s not just directions. It’s global infrastructure.
The next time your phone recalculates, understand this:
A Black woman’s math is guiding you.
That’s flux energy.
Controlled movement.
Structured adaptation.
Unshakeable precision.
Never Break. Never Settle. Never Fold.
