The Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), is a proposed three-satellite regional time transfer system and Satellite Based Augmentation System for the Global Positioning System, that would be receivable within Japan. The first satellite 'Michibiki' was launched on 11 September 2010. Full operational status is expected by 2013.
Authorized by the Japanese government in 2002, work on a concept for a Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), or Juntencho (準天頂) in Japanese, began development by the Advanced Space Business Corporation (ASBC) team, including Mitsubishi Electric, Hitachi, and GNSS Technologies Inc. However, ASBC collapsed in 2007. The work was taken over by the Satellite Positioning Research and Application Center. SPAC is owned by four departments of the Japanese government: the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
QZSS is targeted at mobile applications, to provide communications-based services (video, audio, and data) and positioning information. With regards to its positioning service, QZSS can only provide limited accuracy on its own and is not currently required in its specifications to work in a stand-alone mode. As such, it is viewed as a GNSS Augmentation service. Its positioning service could also collaborate with the geostationary satellites in Japan's Multi-Functional Transport Satellite (MTSAT), currently under development, which itself is a Satellite Based Augmentation System similar to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS).
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