The “Beidou” or “Big Dipper” satellite was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest China’s Sichuan province at 4:11 am (2011 GMT on Friday), and accurately entered its planned orbit, Xinhua news agency said.

The satellite was the fifth such vehicle put into space as part of China’s indigenous global satellite positioning system, the report said.

The system would provide “navigation and positioning services in transportation, meteorology, petroleum prospecting, forest fire monitoring, disaster forecast, telecommunications and public security among others,” it said.

It was expected to be operational for clients in China and Asia by 2008 and according to current plans would be expanded into a worldwide global positioning system in the future, it said.

The complete “Compass” navigation system would include a total of five geostationary earth orbit satellites and 30 medium earth orbit satellites, previous reports said.

Xinhua did not say when the entire system was set to be completed.

It was also not clear how the Chinese system would rival the US global positioning satellite system or the European Union’s Galileo satellite navigational system which is expected to be built with Chinese participation.

Saturday’s launch was the 97th successful flight of China’s Long March series carrier rocket, the work horse of the nation’s space programme and a key component of its ballistic missile arsenal.