Current Affairs 14th January 2018

Current Affairs 14th January 2018 - Important Points

• Two navigation satellites launched into space by - China

Current Affairs 14th January 2018 - Details

Two navigation satellites launched into space by - China

China launched two BeiDou-3 satellites to provide navigation and positioning services to countries along the BRI (Belt and Road initiative) by the end of 2018 successfully. In 2018, It is the first launch of the BeiDou satellites which will be seeing intensive launches in 2018.

The March-3B carrier rocket took off in the south western province of Sichuan from Xichang Satellite Launch Center. In the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, these two satellites are coded as 26th and 27th satellites. China is planning to send 18 BeiDou-3 satellites into space in 2018.

More about BeiDou Navigation Satellite System

• The BDS is being built by China as rival to US Global Positioning System. It consists of two separate satellite constellations; a limited test system that has been operating since 2000, and a full-scale global navigation system which is at present under construction.
• This satellite system is named after the Chinese term for the Big Dipper; the BeiDou project formally launched in 1994. It started to serve China in 2000 and the Asia-Pacific region by the end of 2012. By around 2020, when the BDS will be going global, it will have over 30 satellites.
• BeiDou is being considered as a potential navigation satellite system expected to take overtake GPS in global usage, and is likely to be more precise than the GPS once it is fully completed.
• The current 3rd generation of BeiDou is claiming to reach millimetre level accuracy, which is ten times more accurate than the finest level of GPS.
• China is trying to move to BeiDou into the international satellite navigation system, improve international cooperation, and make it compatible with GPS from the US, Russia's GLONASS, and the European Union's Galileo.