The drive to establish a domestically developed satellite network for navigation and positioning was initiated by Chinese scientists in 1983, and the country began research and development of its own space-based navigation and positioning system in 1994, aiming to mitigate its reliance on foreign networks.

In 2000, China launched the first two Beidou satellites to establish an experimental system. In 2003 and 2007, another two experimental satellites were sent up to join the trial run.

Beidou's first mass-production satellite, also the first in its second-generation series, was launched in April 2007. The first two third-generation satellites were launched in November 2017.

The deployment of Beidou's space-based assets accelerated in the past two years, with 17 launches placing 28 satellites into orbit.

By now, 59 satellites, including the first four experimental ones, have been launched from Xichang on Long March 3Bs, some having since been put into retirement.

There are 30 third-generation Beidou satellites in three types of orbit — 24 in medium-Earth orbits, three in inclined geosynchronous satellite orbits and three in geostationary orbits.

There also are some second-generation Beidou satellites in operation offering regional services.