China Launches New Addition to GPS Satellite System

China's bid to create its own GPS satellite-navigation system is becoming increasingly obvious with each passing month. On Tuesday, the country's space agency launched a new navigation satellite from the Xichang launch base, in the Sichuan province, southwestern China. The Compass G2 was deployed in a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), but will use its own propulsion system to move into a circular one in the near future. The Xinhua news agency reported that the launch was a complete success and that the country was one step closer to fulfilling its dream of having its own satellite network.

With this plan, China takes on some of the most ingeniously designed positioning systems in the world, including the US-developed GPS, the Galileo Positioning System belonging to the European Union, as well as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) of the Russian Federation. Beijing officials expressed their belief that their Beidou Navigation System would be able to face these already established systems head-on, and said that it could even emerge victorious from such a confrontation.

“The system will shake off the dependence on foreign systems,” the Director of Astronautics at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, Zhang Xiaojin, said. The first Compass satellite in the new navigation system was deployed some two years ago in a medium-altitude orbit, and it represented just the first in a series of over 30 envisioned relays in Earth's orbit. Space reports that, when the system is complete, it will provide the country with an unlimited coverage across the globe.

China has great expectations of the new system, and believes that, by 2015, it could replace the US-created Global Positioning System (GPS) on national automobiles, cell phones, PDAs and other such industrial and individual-addressed applications. In addition, the new system could be used for other purposes as well, from public security and meteorology to petroleum prospecting and forest-fire monitoring. Thus far, Compass satellites have encompassed only the nation itself, but, if this year's launches go according to plan, then we could see a significant increase in coverage by 2010.

The new Compass G2 satellite was launched at 1616 GMT (12:16 pm EDT) on Tuesday, and was ferried to orbit aboard a Long March 3C delivery system, which placed it in an orbit with a 20.5 degree inclination. The current GTO has a high point of about 22,250 miles and a low point of 125 miles, but the new observatory will not remain in this orbit for much longer. Once it fires up its engines, Compass G2 will move into a circular orbit, with an altitude of about 22,300 miles.