China is preparing to launch its third Beidou satellite and says the GPS service will be in operation by 2012.
It expects to launch ten Beidou navigation satellites over the next two years, China Daily reported, quoting the newly-opened website.
Beidou – meaning “compass” - will rival the US-developed GPS, the EU's Galileo and the planned Russian Global Navigation Satellite System.
It will be completed in 2020 with 35 satellites, comprising five geo-stationary and 30 non-geostationary craft, according to Pang Zhihao, a senior researcher with the China Academy of Space Technology.
The third Beidou satellite will lift off shortly from the Xichang satellite launch center in Sichuan province in southwest China, carried by a Long March-3C rocket.
China aims to provide a positioning and navigation service by 2012 with a constellation of 12 Beidou satellites, covering the Asia-Pacific region. The first two satellites are already in place.