By IANS,
Beijing : China launched a navigation satellite early Saturday.The orbiter was successfully launched into space at 12.12 a.m. It is China’s 11th homemade navigation satellite, also called Beidou or Compass system.
A Long March-3C rocket carried the satellite into space from Xichang launch centre in southwestern Sichuan province, Xinhua reported.
Beidou satellites are used in transportation, weather forecasting, marine fisheries, hydrological monitoring and mapping.
China built Beidou in 2000 to break its dependence on the US Global Positioning System (GPS) and create its own global positioning system by 2020.