BeiDou navigation satellite System (BDS), is the dedicated Chinese Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) (Dang et al. 2015). The satellites in the BDS constellation can be tracked by means of Satellite Laser Range (SLR) technology, making use of the onboard Laser Retro-reflector Array (LRA). Additionally, some of BDS satellites were also equipped with Laser Time Transfer (LTT) payloads (Meng et al 2013). The measuring data from these instruments provided highly accurate estimations of satellite orbit, and time comparison between satellite and ground clocks. The performance of the BDS LRA and LTT payloads designed by Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) are presented (Zhang et al. 2014), as well as the dedicated SLR system equipped with a one meter-aperture tracking telescope had the ranging precision of centimeter levels for daylight ranging to BDS satellites at the synchronous orbit. SHAO performed high precise LTT measurements at the synchronous orbit satellites. The LTT data processing and analysis are presented with the time stability of 20 ps at 500 s.The further developments and improvements of Chinese LTT technology are also discussed. Global SLR tracking of BDS satellites is performed by the coordinator of SHAO, providing accurate range data with global coverage to use for BDS satellite orbit determination and evaluation (Zhu et al. 2014, Zhang et al. 2017).

Key words: BeiDou navigation satellite system, satellite laser ranging, laser retro-reflector array laser time transfer, global laser observation