The Christmas time came with a major gift for the Chinese economy, as China has just launched its own global navigational and satellite positioning system. It covers the national territory and the surrounding areas.

The announcement was made by Xinhua, one of the most important Chinese media agencies. The system is called Beidou and becomes the fourth one in the world, after the systems launched by Russia – Glonass, the European Union – Galileo – and the United States of America – GPS. The same press agency has revealed more details about the system. It was initially created to reduce China's dependency on the foreign technologies. Although the system is a major step for the Chinese economy, it is still relatively limited from a geographical point of view. The system is named after Beidou, a constellation in Ursa Major. The constellation is one of the most important ones that can be seen in the northern hemisphere. The best time to observe it is in April and is easy to recognize by a huge asterism.

The plan is in an incipient stage. In 2012, China plans to launch six satellites in order to increase the area covered by this new system. The most important area is the Asia – Pacific one. Although the system is just starting to gain popularity, its beginnings date to 2007. It was the time when the first satellite in Beidou was released, in the spring time. Until a few weeks ago, the Chinese authorities never bothered to talk about the total number of satellites. There were multiple suspicions and assumptions meanwhile, but nothing was clear enough until the end of 2011. The system has a very long way to go. By the time it will be complete, it will count not less than 35 different satellites. They will be exclusively based on Chinese technologies and will provide a series of information regarding cartography, fishing, transportation, weather conditions and telecommunications.

Although the first satellite was launched in 2007 only, China has announced the beginning of this project in 2000, when the first measurements and calculations were done. The country took this idea over while trying to give up the other global systems launched by the United States of America, the European Union and Russia. The American system – GPS (Global Positioning System) – is a radio navigational system working through a satellite that allows the identification on any position on Earth. It works by receiving satellite positioning signals.

The system can determine the correct precision, the speed and the time at any moment. In order to do so, the system requires the signals from at least four different satellites. Setting up the spacial position of an object can be done by determining the phase or the distance. When it comes to the distance, the calculation is done according to the time difference the satellite signal requires to reach the receiver. Getting to know the signal speed and the total duration of the action, the system can determine the distance. This American system benefits from 24 satellites, located at 20,200 km.

On another hand, the system released by the European Union is 100% financed by the union. It took around 5 billion euros only for the first part of the constellation. It is controlled by the ESA. The project is not over yet and might end up with 30 different satellites, at 23,600 km away from Earth. The first two satellites were launched in the autumn of 2011, from Kourou, French Guinea. Galileo will provide Europe with some independence in the satellite navigation. It will provide proper positions to all the types of civil applications, such as auto, maritime, aerial and railroad navigators. The purpose of this project is to increase the safety of the aerial traffic, to reduce the road blocks and to deal with the border security. Besides, Galileo automatically creates new jobs in Europe.

Finally, Russia couldn't remain behind and has recently launched yet another satellite to create its own navigational system to beat the American and European ones. Some major companies including Nokia have already announced their plans to rely on this objective. At the same time, Vladimir Putin has just tried the first mobile phone using this system.

With such a tough competition, China will have a hard time. According to the Chinese authorities, Beidou is compatible and operable with all the major systems in the world. It will provide clear instructions with a 10 m margin, which is double compared to the American system. At the same time, the costs are three times lower compared to Galileo, the European system. In the end, China is one of the few countries in the world that has the technology and capacity to launch satellites in space. Beidou will definitely be a serious competitor for the other systems.