China Has Launched The Last Satellite In Its Navigtating System To Replace GPS

On Tuesday, China had a successful launch with the last satellite of its Beidou navigation system. This is China’s alternative for the GPS system that belongs to the US government, which will help the country lessen its dependence on American technology.

The satellite was launched before 10 AM local time at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province. The launch was broadcast live.

China has been building its own satellite navigation network over the past 20 years. In the mid-1990s, Beijing started the development of Beidou, which translates into the Big Dipper in Mandarin. The aim of this development is to replace the GPS system run by the US Air Force. Apart from GPS, China also wants to replace the European Union’s Galileo, Russia’s Glonass, and India’s NavIC.

This is Beidou’s third iteration, promising to provide China with global navigation coverage as well as communication services while the first two iterations offered coverage in the Asia Pacific regions and China. Most of the phones made by China, which include Huawei devices, already support Beidou.

Beidou has a total of 55 satellites, 30 of which belong to the third version of the navigation network, according to CGTN. In 2019, China surpassed the US in terms of the size of a navigation system. An analysis in 2017 by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission estimated that Beijing may spend $10.6 billion on this network from 1994 to 2020.

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