China’s Satellite Navigation System to Serve Asia-Pacific, Launch More Satellites

Without GPS technology, we would all be lost — increasingly, that’s a literal truth. China’s “Big Dipper” GPS satellite system has of course been in operation for a little while already, but major expansions were announced yesterday at an exhibition in Guangzhou.

This year, an additional three Big Dipper satellites will be launched to assist in a network expansion that will see the Big Dipper system covering the entire Asia-Pacific region by the end of this year. These three new satellites will join the 13 already in the sky, and they likely won’t be the last to go up. The ultimate goal for the Big Dipper system is for it to be a high-tech, open global positioning system with full global coverage by 2020.

China is also cooperating with all the major international players — Russia, the US, the EU, Japan — to integrate the Big Dipper system with their systems and to meet international standards for aviation and maritime navigation.

[China Youth Daily via Sina Tech]