BEIJING, China, April 16, 2007 - Satnews Daily - China intends to have its new Compass Navigation Satellite System partially operational in time for next year’s Beijing Summer Olympic Games.
The fifth satellite in China’s growing “Compass” constellation has been successfully placed into orbit by a Long March launcher fired from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan province. A fourth satellite was launched early last February.
Beijing said Compass would initially remain a regional service. It will provide navigation and positioning services in transportation, meteorology, petroleum prospecting, forest fire monitoring, disaster forecast, telecommunications and public security among others to users in China and Asia by next year.
The complete Compass satnav system will include five geostationary satellites and 30 medium earth orbit satellites. China has not said when the complete Compass system will become operational.
The recent launch of the fifth Compass satellite, however, seems to confirm China’s intent to become a serious player in the global navigation satellite system market.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has 36 satellite slots registered to Compass. Fourteen are in geosynchronous orbits while the remaining 22 are in the medium Earth orbits traditionally used for navigation systems.
Compass is expected to expand into a worldwide global positioning system in the future, competing against the U.S.’ GPS, Russia’s Glonass and Europe’s Galileo. China has contributed funds to finance Galileo.
The existing “Beidou” or “Big Dipper” constellation of three satellites was renamed Compass with the addition of the fourth satellite in February. The three Beidou satellites have a positioning accuracy of 10 meters, which is sufficient for Chinese ships to determine where they are in Asia.
The fourth Beidou satellite, however, is reported to be more accurate and looks like China’s way of confirming rumors it is taking Compass global and into competition against GPS. China has previously admitted that Beidou will form the basis for Compass.
Some Western military analysts believe Beidou and its three satellites can also provide targeting information for Chinese surface-to-surface missiles, including those aimed at Taiwan.
