Satellite marks new milestone for Beidou
Print Edition
THE first of China’s new-generation satellites for its global navigation and positioning network has entered its designed work orbit, officials said yesterday.
They said it marked a new milestone on the road to having global coverage by 2020
As of Tuesday afternoon, navigation equipment on the satellite was functioning and signals were being received on Earth, according to developer the Shanghai Engineering Center for Microsatellites.
The satellite, launched on March 30, is the 17th added to China’s Beidou navigation satellite system and will substantially expand the system’s coverage, the center said.
“The latest satellite will have a longer life and be more accurate than its predecessors,” said Xiangli Bin, director and chief commander for the new-generation Beidou satellite program. It is also smaller than previous Beidou satellites.
It entered its orbit at 10am on Tuesday and opened its atomic clock and other equipment. It managed to receive navigation signals from the ground at 2pm.
The first satellite for China’s independently developed global navigation satellite system was launched in 2000.
The system has been providing positioning, navigation, timing and short message services to users in China and parts of the Asia-Pacific region from December 2012.
The Beidou global network will have 35 satellites in orbit once it is complete, the center said.
Currently there are three other satellite navigation systems — the US Global Positioning System, Russia’s Glonass and Europe’s Galileo, which is still being developed.
Lei Fanpei, chairman of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, which is in charge of research and development, and the manufacture of satellites and rockets for Beidou, has told the Xinhua news agency that by 2020 China will be the third country to provide a global navigation satellite system.
The Shanghai microsatellites center is a non-profit organization established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Shanghai government.
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