BeiDou, China’s answer to GPS, ‘six months ahead of schedule’ after latest satellite launch

Launch of 29th satellite continues push towards greater positioning accuracy, with all 35 now set to be launched by first half of 2020

It will compete with the US Global Positioning System in the civilian market and be adopted by Chinese military

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The latest BeiDou satellite is launched in southwest China on Tuesday. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 1:16pm, 6 Nov 2019Updated: 9:20pm, 6 Nov 2019

China has launched the 29th of its BeiDou navigation system’s satellites, state media reported, saying that the system – intended to rival the US-developed GPS – would be completed next year, six months ahead of schedule.

Carried by a Long March-IIIB rocket from the Xichang Launch Centre in the country’s southwest, the latest satellite was the third and final part of a network covering China and surrounding areas, according to state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday.

It is intended that China’s People’s Liberation Army will adopt BeiDou in place of the US Air Force’s Global Positioning System (GPS), and that BeiDou will compete with GPS in the global civilian satellite navigation market – especially in conjunction with China’s transcontinental infrastructure strategy the Belt and Road Initiative.

“It has significant and strategic implications for the Belt and Road Initiative,” Chen Zhonggui, the designer of the satellite, was quoted as saying.

BeiDou is China’s independently developed and operated navigation satellite system. With both military and civilian applications, Beijing hopes it will “meet the needs of the country’s national security as well as economic and social development”, according to a white paper in 2016.

The system is designed to be able to specify location to 10cm of accuracy for military use, compared with GPS’s 30cm.

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