China launches new high-orbit satellite

China on Friday successfully launched a high orbit satellite to boost its home-grown BeiDou global satellite navigation system being built to rival United States Global Position System (GPS).

State-run Xinhua reported that the satellite was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in the southwestern Sichuan Province.

It is the first BeiDou-3 satellite in high orbit, about 36,000 km



above the Earth. In a geostationary orbit, following the Earth's rotation, it will view the same point on Earth continuously.

The satellite is meant to serve countries in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI. 

It will be the fourth global satellite navigation system after the US GPS system, Russia's GLONASS and the European Union's Galileo.