In 1974, the first GPS satellite was launched. GPS systems now give accurate locations with an error of only a few meters. They also have precision timing, giving time measurements with an error of less than a microsecond (one millionth of a second). GLONASS is a positioning system that was launched by the Soviet Union. It relies on a slightly different model of the Earth. In 2007, the European Union approved financing to develop a competing system, named Galileo. China had some limited participation in developing Galileo, but in 2006 announced development of a GPS system of its own, to be named Beidou. Beidou is a Chinese name for the Big Dipper.