Posted: Sun, Aug 1, 2010, 10:38 AM ET (1438 GMT)
A Long March rocket launched the latest in a series of Chinese navigation satellites on Sunday. The Long March 3A rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 5:30 pm EDT Saturday (2130 GMT Saturday, 5:30 am Beijing time Sunday) and placed the Beidou satellite into orbit. The satellite is the fifth in the Beidou-2, or Compass, satellite navigation system, and also the first intended to operate from an inclined geosynchronous orbit; previous spacecraft had been in standard geosynchronous orbits. China plans to eventually deploy a full-fledged global satellite navigation system similar to the American GPS system.
