China Launches 46th Satellite Of BeiDou Navigation System - Reports

Daniyal Sohail Published June 25, 2019 | 11:00 AM

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th June, 2019) China launched the 46th satellite of its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) into space on Tuesday, local media reported.

The launch was carried out at 2:09 a.m. local time (18:09 GMT Monday) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southern Sichuan province, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Following in-orbit tests, the BeiDou-2 satellite will be working to enhance the BDS positioning accuracy.

China successfully completed the creation of basic navigation network of the BeiDou-3 system in November 2018. BeiDou-2 and BeiDou-3 systems are planned to coexist until October 2020. Then, BeiDou-3 navigation satellites will replace the elder system.

The BeiDou system is designed as a rival to GPS in the United States, Glonass in Russia and Galileo in the European Union. Beijing plans that the system will offer its services worldwide by 2020.