The Chinese government has spent about $ 10 billion on the deployment of the Beidou-3 satellite group and related ground systems.

This system is a competitor to satellite navigation systems, including the most common in the world – American GPS. The total number of satellites in all three phases of the Beidou project is 55 spacecraft. The group’s last satellite was launched into orbit in June 2020.

Implementation of the Beidou satellite navigation project began in China in 2000. As part of the first phase of Beidou-1, a group of satellites was deployed to navigate in China. As part of the second phase of Beidou-2, a satellite geolocation system for the Asia-Pacific region was created by 2012. Beidou-3 covers the entire surface of the Earth.