BeiDou, named after the Chinese name of the Big Dipper, is China’s satellite navigation system, complete worldwide since 2020. Unlike GPS and Galileo, it mixes three kinds of orbits: most satellites circle about 21,500 km up, others stay above the equator in geostationary orbit, 35,786 km high, and a few follow inclined orbits at the same height that trace figure-of-eight paths over Asia. That mix gives especially good coverage of the Asia-Pacific region. BeiDou also lets users send short text messages through its satellites, a service the other systems do not offer.
Where are the BeiDou navigation satellites?
Computing…
Questions and answers
Does my phone use BeiDou?
Most recent phones receive BeiDou together with GPS, Galileo and GLONASS.
Why do some BeiDou satellites draw a figure eight?
They take one day per orbit like geostationary satellites, but their orbit is tilted, so they swing north and south of the equator over the same longitudes.
Where the numbers come from
Values refresh every second in your browser; the published data are checked every 10 minutes and updated several times a day.