How did China’s Beidou Navigation System develop?

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China has sent another pair of the BeiDou-3 navigation satellites into space. They were launched early Monday morning from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province. The BeiDou-3 is China's new generation of navigation satellites. Let's take a quick look at how the system came into being and what the plans are for the future.

CGTN Picture

In 2009, the BeiDou-3 was officially approved by the central government.

Its testing was completed in 2016 and plans were made to initiate a simple, basic and global system step by step.

In November 2017, China launched the first two BeiDou-3 satellites into space, marking the beginning of the system's integration into a global network.

In March 2018, the simple system – which consisted of eight BeiDou-3 satellites – was completed.

CGTN Picture

By the end of this year, the basic system of 19 BeiDou-3 satellites will be in place, to serve countries and regions involved the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

In the next two years, China will launch another 11 BeiDou-3 satellites into orbit, namely six BDS-3 satellites to the medium earth orbits, three satellites to the inclined geosynchronous earth orbit and two satellites to the geostationary earth orbit.

By 2020, the system will provide first-class services around the globe with 30 satellites.

CGTN Picture

The Beidou-3 will become one of the four major global positioning and navigation systems after the US's GPS, Russia's GLONASS and Europe's Galileo satellite system.

(Top photo credit: VCG)