Updates on the Chinese and Indian Satellite Navigation Systems

Beidou / Compass
China’s official state news agency, Xinhua, has reported that China will use Beidou for traffic guidance and venue monitoring during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The current Compass constellation consists of four geostationary Beidou satellites (1A-1D) as well as a single Beidou 1M medium earth orbit satellite launched in April 2007. When fully operational, Beidou / Compass will have four geostationary satellites as well as 30 medium earth orbit satellites. According to Xinhua more satellite launches are set for 2008.

IRNSS
India, which in 2006 unveiled plans for the Indian Region Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), has recently updated the status of this system. The Indian Space Research Organization is almost ready to build a prototype satellite, with the design for the actual satellites being nearly complete. The complete system will have seven satellites: three geostationary as well as four in a geosynchronous orbit at 29° to the equatorial plane. India expects to launch the first satellite in 2010 with the system becoming fully operational in 2012. IRNSS differs from systems such as GPS, Glonass and Galileo in that it does not use the L-radio band for transmission of the signals. Since this band is slightly overcrowded with all the existing (and future) navigation systems, India has opted for the S-band (two frequencies separated by 350 MHz)