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Latest satnav developments
Reports from Beijing indicate that the Chinese government’s Aerospace Science & Technology Corporation is schedued to launch this July its upgraded BeiDou-3 satnav positioning system with progressive deployment of 6-8 geostationary satellites within the year.
A global service comparable to GPS involving a final total of 35 satellites is planned for completion in 2020. It will reportedly guarantee a basic service for all countries along the so-called Belt and Road route linking China and the rest of Eurasia.
Meanwhile, Russia established at the end of February a second ground station for its rival Glonass system near Johannesburg, South Africa. Following earlier commissioning in 2014 of a secondary station in Brazil, it will continuously monitor Glonass and GPS satnav signals in addition to providing measurements of current navigation parameters of their travel and receipt of satellite messages.
By David Goodfellow
