At 19:55 today, China successfully launched the 54th navigation satellite of the Beidou system at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center using the Long March IIIB carrier rocket, according to CCTV news.
The satellite enters the planned orbit, and subsequent orbital changes, on-orbit tests, test evaluations, and timely access to the network will be provided to provide services. In May, the last geostationary satellite will be launched as planned.
By then, the deployment of Beidou III Global Constellation will be fully completed.
The construction of the BeiDou system has gone through three phases of the BeiDou 1 system, the BeiDou 2 system, and the BeiDou 3 system. At present, all four Beidou-1 test satellites have been retired.
From the first star of Beidou II, China has launched 54 Beidou navigation satellites.
The Beidou-3 system consists of 24 medium-circle earth orbit satellites, 3 geostationary orbit satellites, and 3 inclined geosynchronous orbit satellites, a total of 30 satellites.
This launch is the 29th networked satellite, which plays a key role in satellite-based enhancements, short message communications, precision single-point positioning and other special services.
