Chinanews, Beijing, Nov. 5 - An official said recently that China had started to build its own global satellite navigation system, the Compass Navigation Satellite System, CCTV international channel reports.

 

Satellite navigation system is an important infrastructure built in space and has brought tremendous social and economic benefits to the humankind. As a developing country, China has a vast area of land and sea territories. China attaches great importance to the establishment of the satellite navigation system and tries hard to develop such a system with its own intellectual property rights, the official said.

 

Since 2000, China has successfully set up the Compass Navigation Experimental System by launching three satellites. The three satellites can show the location of a particular area within China and its neighboring territories, offer time service, and realize WADGPS (wide area difference Global Positioning System) function. The three satellites are now widely used for mapping, telecommunications, water conservancy, transportation, fishery, prospecting, and in preventing forest fires and safeguarding national security.

 

The Compass Navigation Satellite System China is now building consists of five geostationary satellites and 30 non-geostationary satellites. It will provide both open service and authorized service.

 

China aims to launch two satellites for the Compass Navigation Satellite System in 2007. By 2008, the two satellites will provide services to customers in China and its neighboring regions. China will also conduct an experiment on the system and gradually expand it into a global satellite navigation system in the end.

 

In order to raise the system’s compatibility with other satellite systems in the world and make full use of its functions, China is willing to cooperate with other countries to jointly develop the satellite navigation industry, the official said.