5-year anniversary: China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System serves the globe

December 27 marks the fifth anniversary of China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) providing global service since December 27, 2018, when primary systems of the country's third-generation BeiDou system, BDS-3, were completed.

The BDS-3 was completed and put into service on July 31, 2020, making China the third country to have an independent global navigation satellite system.

The country launched three satellites for the BDS-3 this year following three years of commissioning in orbit. One was launched in May, with the 56th satellite serving as the system's first backup satellite. The other two, the 57th and 58th satellites, were launched on Tuesday.

The three satellites were designed to expand the communication capacity of the system's regional short-messaging function, enhance positioning accuracy and promote the network's availability and stability.

Universally accepted

The BDS has been recognized as being of the required standard by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in 2023, making it a universally accepted navigation system for global civil aviation.

The system's technical standards and recommended measures have been added to the ICAO's existing standard documents in Annex 10 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation.

The ICAO's technical verifications are a testimony to the system's ability to provide navigation services for various industries around the world.

Application expanded

With its high-precision and short-message service capabilities verified over the past five years, the BDS is being integrated into an increasing number of application scenarios. These include positioning, navigation, international search and rescue, agriculture, meteorology, and city management, thereby creating significant social and economic benefits.

The output value of China's satellite navigation and location services industry surpassed 400 billion yuan (around $56 billion) in 2020 and exceeded 500 billion yuan in 2022, Yang Changfeng, chief designer of the BDS and a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told China Media Group in May.

The BDS system has been applied to more than 7.9 million road-operating vehicles, 47,000 ships and 40,000 mainline postal and express delivery vehicles nationwide. Nearly 8,000 BDS terminals of various types have been applied and promoted in the railway sector, according to Yang.

More than 100,000 agricultural machines have been installed with the BDS automatic driving system, covering agricultural production links such as deep farming, rice transplanting, sowing, plant protection, harvesting, straw treatment and drying.

The number of reservoirs using BDS short message communication services for hydrological monitoring stands at 2,587. Moreover, 650 deformed landslide bodies have BDS monitoring stations.

More than 5 million shared bikes equipped with BDS high-precision positioning chips operate in more than 450 cities nationwide.

Mobile phones that support BDS short message communication function have been released, which is the world's first smartphone with a direct satellite connection.

Cooperation broadened

The BDS has served more than 200 countries and regions as of this July, according to a commendation ceremony for the construction of BDS-3 held in Beijing on July 5.

China has carried out active international cooperation on the BDS and advanced its applications across the world, contributing to building a global community of a shared future.

The mature technology of the BDS is being utilized to help Pakistan establish its MM1 satellite-based augmentation system, said Li Dongjun, executive vice general manager of Great Wall Navigation Technology Co., Ltd. Upon establishment, the system will be independent from the BDS, but it will be compatible and interoperable with the BDS.

The company has also completed the development and deployment of the BDS Positioning Service System Platform for countries in the Lancang-Mekong region.

Based on the BDS, services such as land confirmation, precision agriculture and smart ports have been applied in ASEAN countries, southwest Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa to serve local economic and social development.

China initiated its BDS in 1994 and the construction of the first two generations of the systems was completed in 2000 and 2012, respectively.

Constructed and operated independently by China, it is now one of four global satellite navigation systems recognized by the United Nations, along with the U.S.' Global Positioning System, Russia's GLONASS and the European Union's Galileo.

(With input from Xinhua)