BeiDou-3 completes deployment and enters global service
China launched the final satellite of the BeiDou-3 constellation and commissioned the system for global service, giving the world a fourth independent global navigation capability. The completion is worth recording in an economic Journey because of what it demonstrates about the sector: four separate states have each concluded that a free, unmetered global positioning signal is worth building and operating at public expense, and none of them expects to be paid for it directly.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- BeiDou Navigation Satellite System · technology system · not located
- Global navigation satellite systems · technology system · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
EO and GNSS Market Report (biennial series)
Supports the finding that GNSS downstream revenue — devices, chipsets and services — runs to hundreds of billions of euros a year while Earth observation data and services revenue is smaller by roughly two orders of magnitude. V55 verification basis: not retrieved in this session; the contrast in magnitude is stated, the current-edition figures are not.
European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) · Partly verified
EUSPA, EO and GNSS Market Report, Prague, biennial series
Recorded on BeiDou Navigation Satellite System
- The first Navstar GPS satellite launches
- GPS reaches full operational capability
- Selective Availability is switched off
- Galileo declares initial services
- BeiDou-3 completes deployment and enters global service
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- Galileo declares initial services · 2016-12-15
- Selective Availability is switched off · 2000-05-01
- GPS reaches full operational capability · 1995-04-27
- The first Navstar GPS satellite launches · 1978-02-22