Latest progress in China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System

BEIJING -- China has been making continuous progress in the satellite navigation and positioning industry with significant moves and industrial applications in more diversified fields.

The following facts and figures offer a glimpse of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) and China's latest moves to boost the sector:

-- China has recently released six documents detailing technical requirements and test methods for key or basic civilian products using the BDS-3, according to the China Satellite Navigation Office.

Technical requirements and test methods were drafted for chip, integrated chip, antenna, receiver board and navigation module products, as well as other key BDS-3 products that are used in civilian applications.

-- China has released four new national technical standards for the BDS-3, a major move forward in standardizing and ensuring the development and industrial application of the BDS through drafting national standards.

The four newly-released technical standards are for fields of the data format, map application, ground-based augmentation system and atomic clock of the BDS.

-- China's Xi'an Satellite Control Center has completed a health check of 52 in-orbit BeiDou satellites ahead of the Spring Festival holiday, the Chinese Lunar New Year.

This is the center's first comprehensive operation management examination of all BeiDou satellites since the completion of the BDS-3 system for global users. With the help of a self-developed satellite health assessment system, the staff at the center analyzed key data of the satellites from July 1 to Dec 31, 2020.

-- China officially commissioned the BDS on July 31, opening the new BDS-3 system to global users.

Along with positioning, navigation and timing services, the BDS-3 system can provide a variety of value-added services like global search and rescue assistance, short message communication, ground-based and satellite-based augmentation, as well as precise point positioning.

-- China's satellite navigation and positioning industry gained a total output value of 345 billion yuan (about $53.4 billion) in 2019. The figure is expected to reach 400 billion yuan in 2020.

The BDS has provided comprehensive services for sectors such as transport, public security, disaster relief, agriculture, forestry and urban governance.

-- The BDS has helped improve the efficiency of the country's agriculture and forestry industries, both of which are labor-intensive. Roughly 45,000 pieces of BDS-based automatic agricultural machinery are working nationwide, cutting labor costs by 50 percent.

-- Technologies based on the BDS and its integration with other global navigation satellite systems are strengthening China's capabilities in monitoring and providing early warnings for geological disasters.

-- The BDS and related technologies have been extensively applied in all major fields in China's transportation sector, such as key transportation process monitoring, highway infrastructure safety monitoring, port high-precision real-time positioning and dispatching monitoring.