China has successfully launched two navigation satellites into space for its Beidou global navigation and positioning network from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the south-western province of Sichuan.
Carried by a Long March-3B carrier rocket, the 12th and 13th satellites of the navigation system entered the scheduled orbit, marking the first time that China has carried out a launch of two navigation satellites using a single rocket.
The launch centre said that the two satellites will further improve the accuracy of Beidou, also known as the Compass Navigation Satellite System (CNSS).
Upon completion, the Beidou project, currently providing positioning, messaging and navigation services within China and the neighbouring regions, would become an equivalent of the US Global Positioning System (GPS), Russian Glonass and European Galileo.
The China Civil Aviation Authority Officials have confirmed that the civil aircraft that are currently using the US GPS system will also gradually begin to use the Compass system.
Designed to provide coverage for both military and civil applications, the Beidou-2 satellites carry two types of payloads, namely the Radio Determination Satellite Service (RDSS) and Radio Navigation Satellite Service (RNSS).
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By GlobalDataEquipped on all CNSS/Beidou 2 satellites, the RNSS payload consists of an atomic clock, an L-band transmitter, signal processor, transmitter antennas array, an L-band uplink receiver, laser corner-cube reflector for orbit determination, and multi-lateration unit.
Approved by the Chinese government in 2004, CNSS was activated on 27 December 2011 for trials and by 2014 the system will be ready to initially offer high-precision positioning and navigation services to the Asia-Pacific region.
The nation also has plans to launch three additional satellites for the Beidou network later this year and to complete a global satellite positioning and navigation system with more than 30 orbiters by 2020.
