Our country successfully launched the 56th Beidou navigation satellite

　　At 10:49 on May 17, 2023, our country successfully launched the 56th Beidou navigation satellite with the Long March 3B carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The satellite is a geostationary orbit satellite and is the first backup satellite of our country’s Beidou-3 project. After entering the orbit and completing the in-orbit test, it will be connected to the Beidou satellite navigation system. This launch is the first mission after three years of high-density networking of the Beidou-3 project.

　　The launch of the satellite will further enhance the system service performance, which is of great significance for promoting the characteristic services of the Beidou system and supporting the large-scale application of the Beidou system. The satellite realizes on-orbit hot backup of existing geostationary orbit satellites, which will enhance the availability and robustness of the system, increase the existing regional short message communication capacity of the system by one-third, improve the satellite-based enhancement and precision single-point positioning service performance, and help users achieve fast and high-precision positioning.

　　The Beidou navigation satellite and supporting launch vehicle launched this time were jointly developed by the China Academy of Space Technology and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, which are affiliated to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. This is the 473rd flight of the Long March series of launch vehicles.

　　(CCTV reporters, Wang Gang, Liu Jie)