China has successfully launched 57 and 58 Beidou navigation satellites

      At 11:26 on December 26, 2023, China successfully launched the 57th and 58th Beidou navigation satellites with the Long March-3B carrier rocket and the upper stage of Yuanzheng-1 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. This group of satellites is a medium-circle earth orbit satellite, and is the first group of MEO satellites launched after the completion and opening of China's Beidou-3 global satellite navigation system.

     Compared with the previous MEO networking satellites, the functional performance of this group of satellites has been further upgraded in terms of global short message communication capacity, spaceborne atomic clock technology, payload intelligence, etc., and will further improve the reliability and service performance of the Beidou system after being connected to the network, which is of great significance to support the stable operation and large-scale application of the system, and lay the foundation for the design of the next generation of Beidou satellites.
     The Beidou navigation satellite and the supporting carrier rocket were 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. The Beidou navigation satellite and the supporting carrier rocket were 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.