Shijian-21 demonstrated satellite-refueling capabilities in late 2021 and early 2022 by docking with a defunct Beidou GNSS satellite in GEO and delivering it to a higher graveyard orbit.
Multiple Beidou satellite launches have produced incidents of boosters falling near inhabited areas, including a 2019 launch that saw a falling booster impact a rural building.
The Beidou launch on 2023-12-25/26 followed a 2023-12-24 launch of four Tianmu-1 meteorological satellites on a Kuaizhou-1A from Jiuquan and a 2023-12-25 launch of three Shiyan-24C experimental satellites on a Long March 11 from a mobile sea platform off Guangdong province.
The Long March 3B launch vehicle used a Yuanzheng-1 (YZ-1) upper stage to deliver two Beidou satellites into medium Earth orbit.
Beidou consists of 36 active satellites located mostly in medium Earth orbit with additional satellites in geostationary Earth orbit and inclined geosynchronous orbit.
Beidou is China’s global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and was completed in mid-2020.
China added two satellites to its Beidou positioning and navigation system on a Long March 3B launch on 2023-12-25 Eastern (Dec. 26 UTC) from Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
Pyxis receives signals from all four global GNSS constellations: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and Beidou.
Pyxis receives GNSS signals from all four worldwide constellations: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and Beidou.
Pyxis receives signals from all four worldwide GNSS constellations: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou.
The mosaic-X5 receiver is compatible with GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, and NavIC constellations.
etherWhere’s silicon supports all four global positioning constellations: GPS, Galileo, Glonass, and BeiDou.
In December 2021, China's Shijian-21 satellite docked with Compass G2, a malfunctioning Beidou satellite, which it dragged into a graveyard orbit above geosynchronous orbit.
Flex Mini supports multiple satellite constellations including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou.
The PRC's BeiDou satellite system serves as an alternative global navigation satellite system to the USA's GPS.
A Long March 3B rocket launched the 56th satellite for China’s Beidou navigation and positioning system from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 10:49 p.m. Eastern on 2023-05-16.
The 56th Beidou satellite is headed for geostationary orbit and serves as the first backup satellite for the Beidou system, which was completed in 2020.
The third edition of 'An Introduction to GNSS' includes updates to various GNSS constellations including GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, and Galileo.
China plans to launch replacement satellites for the Beidou GNSS constellation in 2023.
Beidou is the only global navigation satellite system with a built-in secure messaging service that supports up to 40 Chinese characters for the global service and up to 1,000 characters for the regional service.