It was announced ION’s HQ in Manassas, Virginia, on 4 April that it had published a special issue of its journal NAVIGATION, featuring China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) with special editors John W Betz, Mingquan Lu, Y Jade Morton and Yuanxi Yang.

This special issue provides a collection of papers presenting research achievements in the BDS over the last two years. It covers essential fields necessary to ensure the successful operation of BDS such as constellation design, operational and control system design and construction, frequency and signal design, updated coordinate reference system and time system, satellite orbit determination, ionospheric model, and software receiver. Publication of the issue also provides an opportunity to promote users’ understanding and applications of the BDS.