China has successfully launched pair two high-resolution remote sensing satellites SuperView-1 01 and 02 to get commercial images. These satellites were launched on-board of Long March 2D rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in Shanxi Province. They will provide commercial images at 0.5-meter resolution. The satellites launch followed release of a white paper which said China plans to form a BeiDou network consisting of constellation of 35 satellites for global navigation services by 2020. It is expected to compete with US’s Global Positioning system (GPS).
China plans to start providing basic navigation services to countries along the Silk Route One Belt One Road Economic route and 21st-century Maritime Silk Road in 2018. China will launch a lunar probe in 2018 to achieve world’s first soft landing on the far side of the Moon to show case its ambitious space programme including manned missions, building permanent space station and reaching to Mars.