Posts Tagged ‘Chinese GPS’
Will China's Compass satellites interfere with Europe's Galileo GNSS?
Since 1978 when the U.S. Defense launched the first GPS satellite into what is now known as the NAVSTAR GPS constellation, it seems there are GPS satellites going into orbit on a regular basis. In fact, you wonder if there’s enough room for them all up there.
Closely following the U.S. were the Russians who launched GLONASS in 1982 with global coverage achieved by 1991. A faltering economy meant the system fell into disrepair but in recent times the Russian government has stated that they will have it fully functional by 2010, with assistance from India.
Another player in the GNSS space is China (GNSS stands for the Global Navigational Satellite System, the correct term for describing all the navigational satellite constellations in orbit; GPS only refers to the U.S. NAVSTAR constellation). China launched its first Compass satellite in April 2007 and is planning to have it operational for mainland China by 2010. It intends to have global coverage by 2020.
