China: China has launched its first geostationary satellite for the BeiDou constellation from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, in the southwestern Sichuan Province.
With this one more achievement added to China’s home-grown global satellite navigation system.
Beidou-3G satellites are the geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) component of the third phase of the Chinese Beidou satellite navigation system.
Launched on a Long March-3B carrier rocket, it is the 41st of the BeiDou navigation system and will work with 16 other Beidou-3 satellites already in orbit.
The G1Q satellite is the 17th BeiDou-3 satellite and the 41st overall BeiDou satellite. Another pair of BeiDou-3 medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites, M17 and M18, will be launched in mid-November.
A basic system with BeiDou-3 satellites orbiting will be in place by the year-end to serve countries in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, said Yang Changfeng, chief designer of the system.
The launch was the 290th of the Long March carrier rocket series.
