China launches navigation satellite

China launched a navigation satellite Saturday, moving forward in plans to create a positioning system that can rival GPS, the <i><a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/5de699fe-b478-11db-b707-0000779e2340,dwp_uuid=9c33700c-4c86-11da-89df-0000779e2340,_i_rssPage=9c33700c-4c86-11da-89df-0000779e2340.html&quot; style="color:#FF0000;text-decoration:underline">Financial Times</a></i> reported. The Beidou satellite was launched on a Long March 3A rocket. Beijing's navigation system is called Compass and it will cover all of China and parts of neighboring countries by 2008. It will eventually cover the globe, although no date has been set. The satellite launch comes after China <a href="http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/subscriber/newsdetail/8477.html&quot; style="color:#FF0000;text-decoration:underline">announced</a> it had shot down one of its old weather satellites from space with a missile on January 11, which sparked international outcry.