Beidou 北斗卫星导航系统, China's second-generation satellite global positioning system, featuring target location, navigation, positioning, timing and even text messaging communication, will cover the Asia Pacific region by 2012. China is accelerating the construction of her Beidou system to move ahead of the three other global navigation satellite systems. The system is estimated to be able to perform regional navigation and target location on the successful launch of the third inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) satellite at 04:47 on 10 April 2011. The Beidou system is expected to cover the entire world by 2020.
China will break the monopoly of the U.S. GPS system by building the dominant satellite navigation system for the Asia Pacific region, according to Beidou chief system designer Sun Jiadong 孙家栋。
Today's launch of Beidou’s third IGSO satellite gave the system the capability to perform regional navigation and target location, a big step over the current system which covers only China. The upgrade to the third-generation system will be implemented through a tiny chip that Beidou engineers hope to place in every home, car and mobile phone in the region.
With its third-generation version being under construction, America's GPS is way ahead in this field, and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) has recovered from the disintegration of the Soviet Union and is catching up. The construction of the Galileo navigation system is delayed due to a lack of funding from the European Union.
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