After 11 years working on a satellite positioning system China, earlier this month, launched the tenth in a 35 satellite constellation. The system has now been switched on and is operational.
The Chinese constellation, called Beidou meaning Plough or Big Dipper, is interoperable with the world’s other positioning constellations: the 30 satellite GPS constellation of the US, the 24 satellite system Glonass of Russia, and the 30 satellite Galileo constellation of Europe which, so far, consists of two satellites and is not operational.
China intends to launch six more satellites next year and to have all the 35 Beidou satellites up and running in 2020 – the same date when Galileo is scheduled to be completed.
Galileo was first scheduled to be completed in 2014, so the odds of further slippages to its schedule are high.
Accuracy of Beidou is down to 25 metres but this will be reduced to 10 metres when the six satellites due to be launched next year are in place.