BEIJING: China issued a white paper on the country’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) on Friday.
Titled “China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System in the New Era,” the white paper was published by the State Council Information Office of China.
It said BDS has been built into a world-class navigation system, noting China plans to refine the system by improving its operation management, promoting sustainable development of BDS-based applications, and upgrading its governance in the coming years. The paper highlighted outstanding batch production capability, saying in less than three years, 18 rockets deployed 30 BDS satellites into orbit, “a pace unmatched by any other country.” BDS is able to provide a wide range of services, such as positioning, navigation, timing, international search and rescue. It is the world’s first navigation satellite system to provide a global short message communication service, the paper noted. In building a more powerful BDS, China will create its own smart and distinctive system for operation, maintenance and management, and gain a competitive edge in services such as short message communication, ground-based and satellite-based augmentation, and international search and rescue, said the white paper. By steadily improving the quality and increasing the scope of services, BDS will build the capacity to provide global decimeter-level positioning and navigation with high integrity, thereby delivering better services to users worldwide.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
