China on January 17 used a self-made rocket to launch a geostationary satellite.This is a step closer to its self-developed global positioning and navigation satellite system.
This is the third satellite of the Compass constellation which is designed to consist of five geostationary satellites and 30 non-geostationary ones.
Digitimes.com reports that Compass is planned to cover the Asia Pacific region in 2012 to provide navigation, time signaling and short message services, and reach global coverage around 2020.