The final satellite of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) as launched and powered into orbit by a Long March 3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province on June 30, 2020. All 30 satellites of the BDS-3 system have been operational in the long-term mode, marking a major step forward for BDS to provide full services to the world.

Today, let's look more closely at some of the people behind BDS, especially XJTU alumni.

In 1988, Wu Haitao graduated from XJTU's Department of Information and Control Engineering with a major in Radio technics. He is the current Vice Board Chair of Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Deputy Chief Designer of BDS. He has played a significant role in BDS temporal frequency construction, and conducted numerous experiments and tests of the navigation satellite system.

Su Chengeng was enrolled by XJTU in 2005 and majored in Information Engineering. After graduation, Su participated in BDS design and navigation signal system design. Personally involved with the entire development of the Beidou-3 Satellite system, he witnessed BDS function as a regional positioning and navigation system to becoming a more powerful system that able to provide accurate global service.

Shuai Tao, Chief Designer of the space hydrogen atomic clock, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, studied at XJTU in 1998. The hydrogen atomic clock performs at an advanced international level, providing robust support to accurate positioning and long-term BDS autonomous navigation.

Ji Xin, graduated from XJTU in 2007, is now the director of Observation and Control Technology Lab, Fifth Research Institute (Xi'an Branch), China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The institute developed playload systems for BDS-1 and BDS-2, and 20 satellites of BDS-3.

After graduation from XJTU in 2015, Liu Lei has worked in the Xi'an Satellite Control Center as an assistant engineer. He is responsible for inter-satellite links management, and has fully participated in the observation and management of BDS-3 launch, achieving orbit, and in-orbit operation. He and his team members are hard at work to ensure BDS stable operation.

Niu Yingbei studied at XJTU in 2001 in Computer Science. She participated in tests of the Beidou Navigation app in the BDS-2 vehicle-mounted user's receiver and BDS-3 on-board computer software.