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China successfully put its second homemade navigation positioning
satellite, the Beidou Navigation Testing Satellite, into orbit early
Thursday, marking that the country will have its first generation
of satellite navigation positioning system.
The carrier rocket, Long March 3-A, blasted off at 00:20 (Beijing
time) from the Xichang Satellite Launching Center in southwest China's
Sichuan Province.
The second satellite of its kind, together with the first Beidou
Navigation Testing Satellite, which was put into orbit on October
31, completes a homemade satellite navigation positioning system
for the country, aerospace scientists said.
An official said that China has developed the advanced system to
meet the demand for satellite navigation in the country.
It is an all-weather regional navigation system that provides satellite-guided
information around the clock for such sectors as highway and railway
transportation and seafaring, said the official, adding that the
Beidou Navigation System will play a positive role in promoting
China's economic growth.
The navigation system, regarded as a radio beacon in outer space,
can help any subscriber zero in its location, with accurate longitude,
latitude and altitude statistics.
Before China's successful research and development in the field,
only a few developed countries in the world were able to construct
such a system, the scientists said.
The satellite and the carrier rocket were developed and built mainly
by the Research Institute of Space Technology under the China Space
Science and Technology Group.
Sources said that this is the 64th flight for China's Long March
series rockets and the 22nd consecutive successful launch for the
country's space industry since October 1996.
(People's Daily 12/21/2000)
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