China's Beidou Navigation System Goes Live For Commercial And Public Use
Trials on the technology started last year, but the latest milestone is putting it live and in action. Citizens in the Asia-Pac region can now navigation using the satellites to a distance of 30 feet, and supporting speeds as low as 0.5mph. Presently, China has 16 navigation satellites up in the air, as well as four "experimental" models. By the time 2020 rolls around, China is hoping that its technology will blanket the whole world, with as many as 40 birds in orbit.
The goal here was to provide a system that it had control of, in order to not necessarily rely on systems like America's GPS, Russia's GLONASS and the EU's Galileo. Hey, the more GPS the better, right?