Key launch for Beidou satellite system set for Tuesday

A key launch mission for China's Beidou Navigation Satellite System will take place on Tuesday, according to the China Satellite Navigation Office.

The Beijing-based office said in a statement on Monday evening that a Long March 3B carrier rocket will lift the final satellite in Beidou's third-generation network from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Southwest China's Sichuan province.

The launch was originally scheduled for June 16 but mission command decided to postpone it several hours prior to ignition due to a technical problem on the rocket.

The statement said that the problem has been solved and the launch will be conducted in due course. It did not give more details.

The satellite, the 59th in the Beidou family and 30th in the third-generation series, will work with other Beidou satellites to allow users around the globe to access high-accuracy navigation, positioning and timing services.

The deployment will mark the completion of the Beidou network, China's largest space-based system and one of the four global navigation networks, along with the United States' GPS, Russia's GLONASS and the European Union's Galileo.

Since 2000, when the first Beidou satellite entered orbit, 58 satellites, including the first four experimental ones, have been launched. Some have since been retired.

Beidou began providing positioning, navigation, timing and messaging services to civilian users in China and other parts of the Asia-Pacific region in December 2012. At the end of 2018, Beidou started to provide global services.

Currently, there are 29 third-generation Beidou satellites in three types of orbit — 24 in medium-Earth orbits, three in inclined geosynchronous satellite orbits and two in geostationary orbits.

There also are some second-generation Beidou satellites in operation, offering regional services.