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.

　　中国又向太空发射了一对北斗-3号导航卫星。周一清晨在中国西南部四川西昌卫星发射中心发射升空。北斗三号是中国新一代导航卫星。让我们快速了解一下该系统是如何产生的，以及未来的计划是什么。

　　In 2009, the BeiDou-3 was officially approved by the central government.

　　2009年，北斗3号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年完成了该系统的测试，并计划逐步启动一个简单、基本和全球性的系统。

　　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，中国首次向太空发射了两颗北斗-3卫星，标志着该系统开始融入全球网络。

　　In March 2018, the simple system – which consisted of eight BeiDou-3 satellites – was completed.

　　2018年3月，由8颗北斗-3号卫星组成的简单系统完成。

　　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颗“北斗-3”卫星的基本系统将建成，服务于中国提出的“一带一路”倡议的国家和地区。

　　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.

　　未来两年，中国将再发射11颗北斗-3号卫星进入轨道，即6颗BDS-3卫星进入中地球轨道，3颗卫星进入倾斜地球同步轨道，2颗卫星进入地球静止轨道。

　　By 2020, the system will provide first-class services around the globe with 30 satellites.

　　到2020年，该系统将在全球范围内提供30颗卫星的一流服务。

　　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.

　　北斗-3号将成为继美国的GPS、俄罗斯的GLONASS和欧洲的伽利略卫星系统之后的四大全球定位和导航系统之一。