Posted: Wed, Jul 27, 2011, 6:47 AM ET (1047 GMT)
A Long March rocket placed the latest spacecraft for China's satellite navigation system into orbit on Wednesday. The Long March 3A rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 5:44 pm EDT Tuesday (2144 GMT Tuesday, 5:44 am Beijing time Wednesday) and placed a Beidou satellite into an inclined geosynchronous Earth orbit. The satellite is the ninth in the Beidou-2 program, and the second launched this year; the system will eventually consist of 35 satellites, providing global navigation services similar to the US GPS and Russian GLONASS systems.

Related Links:

•  NASASpaceFlight.com article
•  Spaceflight Now article
•  RIA Novosti article
•  GPS World article
•  Xinhua article