China successfully put its second homemade navigation positioning satellite, the Beidou Navigation Testing Satellite, into orbit early Thursday, marking that the country will have its first generation of satellite navigation positioning system.

The carrier rocket, Long March 3-A, blasted off at 00:20 (Beijing time) from the Xichang Satellite Launching Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The second satellite of its kind, together with the first Beidou Navigation Testing Satellite, which was put into orbit on October 31, completes a homemade satellite navigation positioning system for the country, aerospace scientists said.

An official said that China has developed the advanced system to meet the demand for satellite navigation in the country.

It is an all-weather regional navigation system that provides satellite-guided information around the clock for such sectors as highway and railway transportation and seafaring, said the official, adding that the Beidou Navigation System will play a positive role in promoting China's economic growth.

The navigation system, regarded as a radio beacon in outer space, can help any subscriber zero in its location, with accurate longitude, latitude and altitude statistics.

Before China's successful research and development in the field, only a few developed countries in the world were able to construct such a system, the scientists said.

The satellite and the carrier rocket were developed and built mainly by the Research Institute of Space Technology under the China Space Science and Technology Group.

Sources said that this is the 64th flight for China's Long March series rockets and the 22nd consecutive successful launch for the country's space industry since October 1996.

(People's Daily 12/21/2000)