China has sent another pair of the BeiDou-3 navigation satellites into space. They were launched early Monday morning from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province. The BeiDou-3 is China’s new generation of navigation satellites. Let’s take a quick look at how the system came into being and what the plans are for the future.
中國又向太空發射了一對北鬥-3號導航衛星。周一清晨在中國西南部四川西昌衛星發射中心發射升空。北鬥三號是中國新一代導航衛星。讓我們快速了解一下該系統是如何產生的，以及未來的計劃是什麼。
In 2009, the BeiDou-3 was officially approved by the central government.
2009年，北鬥3號被中央政府正式批准。
Its testing was completed in 2016 and plans were made to initiate a simple, basic and global system step by step.
2016年完成了該系統的測試，並計劃逐步啟動一個簡單、基本和全球性的系統。
In November 2017, China launched the first two BeiDou-3 satellites into space, marking the beginning of the system’s integration into a global network.
2017年11月，中國首次向太空發射了兩顆北鬥-3衛星，標誌著該系統開始融入全球網絡。
In March 2018, the simple system – which consisted of eight BeiDou-3 satellites – was completed.
2018年3月，由8顆北鬥-3號衛星組成的簡單系統完成。
By the end of this year, the basic system of 19 BeiDou-3 satellites will be in place, to serve countries and regions involved the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.
到今年年底，19顆「北鬥-3」衛星的基本系統將建成，服務於中國提出的「一帶一路」倡議的國家和地區。
In the next two years, China will launch another 11 BeiDou-3 satellites into orbit, namely six BDS-3 satellites to the medium earth orbits, three satellites to the inclined geosynchronous earth orbit and two satellites to the geostationary earth orbit.
未來兩年，中國將再發射11顆北鬥-3號衛星進入軌道，即6顆BDS-3衛星進入中地球軌道，3顆衛星進入傾斜地球同步軌道，2顆衛星進入地球靜止軌道。
By 2020, the system will provide first-class services around the globe with 30 satellites.
到2020年，該系統將在全球範圍內提供30顆衛星的一流服務。
The Beidou-3 will become one of the four major global positioning and navigation systems after the US’s GPS, Russia’s GLONASS and Europe’s Galileo satellite system.
北鬥-3號將成為繼美國的GPS、俄羅斯的GLONASS和歐洲的伽利略衛星系統之後的四大全球定位和導航系統之一。