Far above our planet, China’s growing constellation of navigation satellites is offering more precision than ever, thanks to some down-to-earth support in North America. At least two ground monitoring stations for the Beidou satellite navigation system are now operating on the continent, one of which is located somewhere in the central United States, according to a major Chinese defence contractor. The ground facilities are intended to track the Chinese satellites when they fly over the region and report their flight status to Beijing. The data is used to help increase the accuracy of the positioning service with a margin of error of 3cm, according to information from the China North Industries Group Corporation Limited (NORINCO).