China launches second "Compass" satellite for global navigation system

2009-04-15 08:24:12  

·China successfully launched its second navigation satellite early Wednesday. ·The satellite is as part of the country's independent global satellite navigation system. ·China plans to have global satellite navigation system by 2015.

    BEIJING, April 15 (Xinhua) --

China successfully launched its second navigation satellite early Wednesday, as part of the country's independent global satellite navigation system.

    The carrier rocket, Long March 3C, blasted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province at 0:16 a.m..

    An official with the National Engineering Center of Satellite Navigation told Xinhua, the successful launch of the geostationary Earth orbit satellite was of great importance as it was the second one of the country's satellite navigation system independent from foreign technology.

    The system, code named "COMPASS", is a crucial part of the country's space infrastructure for providing navigation and positioning services in transportation, meteorology, petroleum prospecting, forest fire monitoring, disaster forecast, telecommunications and public security among others. It can bring significant social and economic benefits, the official said.

    The system can help clients know their location at any time and place with accurate longitude, latitude and altitude data, and will offer "safer" positioning, velocity, timing communications for authorized users.

    Previous reports said China planed to complete its independent global satellite navigation system by launching about 30 more orbiters before 2015, with 10 navigation satellites into the space in 2009 and 2010. The current Compass system only provides regional navigation service within China and neighboring regions.

    The second "Compass" satellite and its carrier rocket were respectively developed by the China Academy of Space Technology and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology which are under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

    It is the 116th flight for the country's Long March series of rockets.

    China launched the first "Compass" navigation satellite into geostationary orbit in April 2007 to build up its own positioning system following the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS), the Galileo Positioning System of Europe and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS).

Backgrounders:

U.S. Global Positioning System:

    Global Positioning System is a global navigation satellite system developed by the United States Department of Defense and managed by the United States Air Force 50th Space Wing. It became fully operational in 1993. The system allows users to determine their positions within a few meters.

Russian Glonass:

    Glonass, a Global Navigation Satellite System, is the Russian version of the U.S. Global Positioning System and is designed for both military and civilian use. Both systems allow users to determine their positions within a few meters.

EU's Galileo:

    The Galileo project, launched in 1999, is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the European Space Agency. Under the agreement signed by the EU transport ministers in November 2007, Galileo will be put into operation by 2013.

China to have global satellite navigation system by 2015

 2009-01-19 16:37:22  

    BEIJING, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) --

China plans to complete its independent global satellite navigation system by launching about 30 more orbiters before 2015, a space technology official said Sunday.

    China plans to send 10 navigation satellites into the space in 2009 and 2010, said Zhang Xiaojin, director of astronautics department with China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) told China Central Television (CCTV).

    The plan is to establish a global navigation system consisting of more than 30 satellites by the year of 2015. The system will shake off the dependence on foreign systems, Zhang said.

    U.S.'s GPS has been widely used for commercial navigation in vehicles, cell phones and other civilian devices in China. Chinese civilian and military users could be guided by their own satellites worldwide after the Beidou becomes the world's fourth edition of global navigation systems.

    China launched the first satellite, Beidou Navigation System, into geostationary orbit in Oct. 2000, in an effort to build up its own positioning system independent from the U.S.'s Global Positioning System (GPS), E.U.'s Galileo Positioning System and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS).

    China has sent five positioning orbiters into the space. The current Beidou system only provides regional navigation service within China's territory.

    Since Beidou's fifth orbiter launched in April 2007, China has started to upgrade the navigation system to the second generation, code named COMPASS.

Editor: Deng Shasha