China is Moving Closer to its Global-covering Navigation System

Following the successful launches of China’s first four third-generation Beidou Satellites in November 2017 and January 2018, another pair of satellites were sent into orbit by a Long March 3B carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province on February 12 2018. They are not only the 5th and 6th third-generation Beidou Satellites but also the 28th and 29th satellites in China’s domestic Beidou Navigation System.

Beidou is the fourth space-based navigation system in the world, following the GPS in the United States, the GLONASS in Russia and the Galileo of the European Union.

According to Lei Fanpei, chairman of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Group (CASC), BDS (Beidou Navigation System) is planned to consist of 35 satellites in different levels of orbits and will be entirely constructed by 2020. Once China completes the network, it will provide free-of-charge navigation and positioning services with 10-meter accuracy to global civilian users and higher accuracy up to centimeter-level to premium customers.

CHC Navigation is specialised in BDS related services and has a wide range of products that are BDS compatible. It can be expected that along with the booming of Beidou System, CHCNAV products and services will be likely to have larger development space in the international market.