China's GPS to be ready by 2020: Official

BEIJING: China's ambitious global satellite navigation system launched to rival the US-operated GPS is expected to be ready by 2020.

The Beidou satellites will form a complete global satellite navigation system by 2020, China Satellite Navigation System Committee Chairman Wang Li said today.

China will launch some 18 Beidou navigation satellites by 2018, he said. Six to eight Beidou satellites will be sent into orbit in the second half of this year.

Till last year, China had a constellation of 32 satellites for the navigation system.

Beidou satellite navigation system can provide services for countries along the Belt and Road Initiative by 2018, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Wang as saying.

By 2020, the Beidou satellites will form a complete global satellite navigation system, Wang added.