Four new satellites of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) have recently passed tests in orbit and joined the system to provide positioning, navigation and timing services.

The four satellites include the 47th, 48th, 52nd and 53rd satellites of the BDS family, according to China's Satellite Navigation System Management Office.

All of them, operating in medium Earth orbit, were developed by the China Academy of Space Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

The 47th and 48th BDS satellites were launched on Sept. 23, 2019, and the 52nd and 53rd BDS satellites were launched on Dec. 16, 2019.

China began to construct its navigation system, named after the Chinese term for the Big Dipper constellation, in the 1990s and started serving the Asia-Pacific Region in 2012.

Over the past two years, China has successfully sent 28 BDS-3 satellites and two BDS-2 satellites into orbit.

China plans to launch more BDS satellites in March and May to complete the global network.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

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Four BeiDou satellites start operation in network
Beijing (XNA) Feb 17, 2020
Four satellites of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) have recently passed tests in orbit and started operation in the network, according to China's Satellite Navigation System Management Office. The four satellites include the 41st, 49th, 50th and 51st satellites of the BDS family. The 41st BDS satellite, launched on Nov. 1, 2018, is operating in geostationary orbit, and the 49th satellite was sent into inclined geosynchronous Earth orbit on Nov. 5, 2019. Both of them were develop ... read more