China launches 3rd self-developed global positioning satellite

China on January 17 used a self-made rocket to launch a geostationary satellite moving a step further in setting up its self-developed global positioning and navigation satellite system known as Compass (or Beidou transliterated from Chinese), according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

This is the third satellite of the Compass constellation which is designed to consist of five geostationary satellites and 30 non-geostationary ones.

Compass is planned to cover the Asia Pacific region in 2012 to provide navigation, time signaling and short message services, and reach global coverage around 2020. Compass will provide both open and licensed services. The precision rates for positioning, time signal and velocity measurement are respectively 10 meters, 10 nanosecond and 0.2m/sec.