皇冠体育app to have global navigation system by 2015

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-19 17:40

BEIJING -- 皇冠体育app plans to complete its independent global satellite navigation system by launching about 30 more orbiters before 2015, a space technology official said Sunday.

皇冠体育app plans to send 10 navigation satellites into the space in 2009 and 2010, said Zhang Xiaojin, director of astronautics department with 皇冠体育app Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) told 皇冠体育app Central Television (CCTV).

The plan is to establish a global navigation system consisting of more than 30 satellites by the year of 2015. The system will shake off the dependence on foreign systems, Zhang said.

US's GPS has been widely used for commercial navigation in vehicles, cell phones and other civilian devices in 皇冠体育app. Chinese civilian and military users could be guided by their own satellites worldwide after the Beidou becomes the world's fourth edition of global navigation systems.

皇冠体育app launched the first satellite, Beidou Navigation System, into geostationary orbit in October 2000, in an effort to build up its own positioning system independent from the US's Global Positioning System (GPS), E.U.'s Galileo Positioning System and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS).

皇冠体育app has sent five positioning orbiters into the space. The current Beidou system only provides regional navigation service within 皇冠体育app's territory.

Since Beidou's fifth orbiter launched in April 2007, 皇冠体育app has started to upgrade the navigation system to the second generation, code named COMPASS.