China put a navigation satellite into orbit Tuesday


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	China Launches Navigation Satellite posted: 10:00 am ET 31 October 2000

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BEIJING (AP) -- China put a navigation satellite into orbit Tuesday, the first link in a domestically engineered system designed to lessen the country's dependence on foreign technology.

The Long March 3-A rocket blasted off from southwestern China's Xichang launching center a few minutes after midnight and successfully placed the Beidou navigation satellite into orbit, the government's Xinhua News Agency reported.

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The satellite is the first in a series for the system that will provide all-weather, round-the-clock navigation information for highways, railways and shipping, Xinhua said.

The satellite was developed by China's Research Institute of Space Technology, Xinhua said. It did not say how many other satellites China intends to launch for the system and when the network will be operational.

Xinhua applauded the scientific prowess that went into the satellite and noted the successful rocket launching was China's 21st in a row without a mishap since 1996.

Satellite systems allow for more accurate tracking of everything from cargo ships to missiles. The world's most accurate satellite tracking network, the Global Positioning System, was built by the United States and is maintained by the Department of Defense for both commercial and military uses.

As it tries to build up its economy and military, China has been leery of becoming too dependent on foreign technology. A five-year plan for economic development, approved by the ruling Communist Party three weeks ago, calls for boosting the country's high-tech sector.

By the plan's end in 2005, Chinese technology should reach the level attained by developed countries in the mid-1990s, and China should create some leading-edge technologies, the party's People's Daily newspaper reported Tuesday.

Xinhua reported that the military's politically influential general in charge of weapons development, Cao Gangchuan, observed the satellite launching in Xichang.