China Launches Another Compass GEO Navigation Satellite

A Compass/Beidou-2 geostationary satellite is lifted into space from China's Xichang space center. (China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology photo) (Click image to enlarge.)

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China lifted another Compass (Beidou-2) satellite into geostationary orbit (GEO) today (June 2) — its second such launch this year. It joins two other GEOs and a middle-earth-orbiting spacecraft in China’s second-generation GNSS system now under development.

China hopes to have a regional satellite navigation system in place by 2012 to provide a regional service. Fourteen space vehicles (SVs) would comprise the regional constellation: five GEOs, four MEOs, and five inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) satellites. The full GNSS constellation will include 27 MEOs, 3 IGSOs, and 5 GEOs.

According to current plans, primarily Compass Phase II (CPII) signals will be used in the regional system, transmitting on three frequencies using quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK). (See accompanying figure.) 

The full GNSS Compass system planned to be in place by 2020 would use mainly binary offset carrier (BOC) waveforms, with the signals moving on two of the frequencies during Compass Phase III: 1561.098 MHz shifting to 1575.42 MHz, where GPS and Galileo L1 signals are centered, and 1207.14 MHz moving to 1191.795 MHz. “Authorized” signals will be transmitted from 1268.52 MHz in both phases.

The Beidou satellite was launched at 1553 GMT (11:53 a.m. EDT) carried aloft by a Long March 3C rocket from the Xichang space center (XSLC) in China's Sichuan province.

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