China GPS system to cover all of Asia by 2010

Despite the 2010 date specified, Chinese officials aren’t giving up much information. In fact officials from Japan say that it and China have had no talks concerning interoperability of the two nations GPS satellite systems. This is despite the fact that both China and Japan are members of the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICGNSS) that was founded to ensure global interoperability of navigation satellite networks.

China has also not yet completed frequency coordination with the other ICGNSS member nations including the U.S., Europe, Russia and others. According to Space.com, Chinese officials said at the Toulouse Space Show that China’s global Compass/Beidou system would be fully compatible with the U.S. GPS, European Galileo, and Russian Glonass global navigation constellations.

Japanese officials are concerned about the Chinese Asia regional system because Japan is developing its own regional system called the Quazi Zenith Satellite Systems which will have three satellites in a highly elliptical orbit with an apogee over Japan and Asia. According to Satoshi Kogure from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Japanese Agency some in Japan feel the Chinese navigation satellite system is an important issue for Japanese national security.