China launched another of its COMPASS navigational satellites, in a constellation of birds that eventually will provide global-wide navigational signals much like the U.S. Global Positioning Satellites (GPS), Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, announced.

The Xi’an Satellite Control Center announced the new satellite is functioning on orbit, and it is flying in the proper orbit.

Ten more satellites are to be launched in the next two years. Navigational coverage in China and the region is seen by 2011, with global coverage by 2020.

Aside from the American GPS, the Chinese system would compete with the European Galileo system and the Russian Glonass system.