BeiDou

Facts

Satellites in service

37

What a receiver gets

At most 9 m of horizontal error on the open service, averaged over the globe

Operator

The China Satellite Navigation Office

Generations flying

BDS-2 and BDS-3, flying together

First launch

Oct 30, 2000

Typical altitude

21,450 to 21,600 km in medium Earth orbit

35,300 to 36,250 km in inclined geosynchronous orbit

35,786 to 35,786 km in geostationary orbit

Orbital period

12 hours and 53 minutes in medium Earth orbit

23 hours and 56 minutes in inclined geosynchronous orbit

23 hours and 56 minutes in geostationary orbit