XICHANG, Dec. 16 (China Space News) -- China successfully sent two satellites of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) into space from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province at 15:22 Monday.

The launch marked 24 medium earth orbit satellites in the BDS-3 have all been successfully sent into space, and the deployment of the core BDS-3 constellation system has been completed, according to Yang Changfeng, chief designer of the BDS.

Launched on a Long March-3B carrier rocket, the two satellites entered preset orbit after a more than three hours' flight.

The launch was the 321st mission for the Long March series carrier rockets.