China's Beidou GPS Solution

China launched the Beidou Navigation Satellite System on Tuesday, which will reportedly help the country wean its dependence off the U.S. for its popular Global Positioning System (GPS).

Beidou, which is run by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., will provide positioning, navigation and timing services to the country and its "surrounding areas," according to a spokesperson for the new system.

"The Beidou satellite navigation system is a building of our own, operates independently, and is compatible with other shared global satellite navigation systems," said Ran Cheng, spokesperson for the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.

"At present, the Beidou satellite navigation system has launched 10 satellites, and built a basic system [for] active positioning and short-message communication services."

In addition to the 10 satellites launched for Beidou so far, China plans to launch six more into orbit in 2012 to bolster accuracy and expand its service to cover most of the Asia-Pacific area.

Beidou, which means "Big Dipper" in Mandarin-Chinese, began construction in 2000 with the goal of providing a fully-realized satellite sytem by 2020. The original system was going to be called Compass, and it was said to leverage about 35 satellites.

The project was mostly overseen by the Chinese military, which controls the Chinese space program, but it will largely be directed at civilians and commercial applications.