China Launches Satellite For GPS Independence

China launched a Beidou satellite into orbit on a Long March 3A rocket on Tuesday as the country seeks to gain independence from and eventually rival American GPS services, reports Andrew Jones over at gbtimes.com.

The Long March rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in the hills of the southwestern province of Sichuan at 04:11 Beijing time on Wednesday (20:11 UTC Tuesday).

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The satellite was launched toward an intended inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) and is the 22nd in the Beidou (BDS) satellite series, boosting China’s own, independently constructed Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS).

China’s BDS is similar to US GPS, Russia’s GLONASS, and the European Galileo positioning, navigation and timing satellite constellations.

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Receivers for GNSS signals are widely used in cars, aviation, shipping, and mobile phones for navigation and tracking.

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Head on over to gbtimes.com to read the full story from Jones.

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