A top Chinese carmaker is launching satellites into low-Earth orbit for real-time communication anywhere\u2014giving Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX some company<\/b><\/p>\n
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A top Chinese carmaker is launching satellites into low-Earth orbit for real-time communication anywhere\u2014giving Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX some company<\/span><\/p>\n BYLINDA LEW, BRUCE EINHORN AND BLOOMBERG<\/span><\/p>\n February 4, 2024 at 12:06 AM GMT+1<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A Chinese rocket launched a group of communications satellites produced by one of the country\u2019s largest carmakers, boosting the nation\u2019s efforts to catch up in low-Earth orbit \u2014 an area dominated by Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Eleven satellites made by Geespace, a subsidiary of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., lifted off aboard a Long March CZ-2C rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province on Saturday at 7.37 a.m. local time, state broadcaster CCTV reported.<\/span><\/p>\n For Geespace, it\u2019s the long-awaited second such launch following an initial batch of nine satellites it sent to orbit in mid-2022.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Geespace wants to deploy a network of satellites some 600 kilometers (373 miles) above the Earth that can one day link to driverless cars and support other features in Geely vehicles. The company also hopes they will be able to provide links for consumer electronics. As competition in China\u2019s auto market heats up and space infrastructure improves, satellite communications are becoming another important selling point to consumers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cRight now, I might have satellite function and you don\u2019t,\u201d Geespace Chief Executive Officer Tony Wang said in an interview with Bloomberg News before the launch. \u201cBut in the future, everyone will be equipped with the feature, and also every car.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wang referred to two smartphones in Huawei Technologies Co.\u2019s Mate series, which support satellite-enabled dialing and also connect to China\u2019s Beidou satellite navigation system. Geespace\u2019s satellite communication is now available in several of Geely group\u2019s EVs, including the Zeekr 001 FR and 007, and the Galaxy E8.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n China has made major strides in developing its space program, including landings on Mars and the far side of the moon, and has plans for a \u201crapid establishment\u201d of a \u201cmassive\u201d constellation in low-Earth orbit, the Global Times reported in late December.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However, state-owned enterprises so far have been slow in building that low-Earth orbit presence, and the Geely subsidiary is one of the only private-sector companies to try operating satellites there. SpaceX operates more than 5,300 satellites in low-Earth orbit and continues to launch dozens more every month.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This weekend\u2019s launch came more than 18 months after Geespace deployed its first batch of satellites. The company now faces a tight schedule if it hopes to meet its goal of deploying the constellation\u2019s 72-satellite first phase by next year.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTo establish this satellite constellation, we need to set up the network, on-the-ground infrastructure and also push forward the commercialization of cloud service,\u201d Wang said. \u201cIt is a lot of pressure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The group\u2019s billionaire founder and Chairman \u2014 Li Shufu \u2014 owns almost 10% of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, and Geely owns stakes in other foreign automakers such as Volvo AB and Lotus Technology Inc. Li also picked Geespace\u2019s Chinese name, which means a path in time and space.<\/span><\/p>\n Geely was China\u2019s third-largest auto exporter last year, behind only SAIC Motor Corp. and Chery Automobile Co. Geespace plans to one day offer its service globally, Wang said, \u201cto provide real-time satellite communication anywhere in the world except the north and south poles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In 2021, Geespace completed the construction of a factory in the eastern Chinese city of Taizhou that\u2019s capable of producing 500 satellites a year. The company has sold dozens of those satellites to Chinese startups, universities and others involved in space, Wang said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe next race for the EV sector is self driving and the Internet of Things service. Telecommunications infrastructure is also moving from 5G to 6G. One of its key features is the wide use of satellite communications and navigations network,\u201d Wang said. \u201cWe think the demand and the size for this market will reach an inflection point very soon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A top Chinese carmaker is launching satellites into low-Earth orbit for real-time communication anywhere\u2014giving Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX some company A top Chinese carmaker is launching satellites into low-Earth orbit for real-time communication anywhere\u2014giving Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX some company BYLINDA LEW, BRUCE EINHORN AND BLOOMBERG February 4, 2024 at 12:06 AM GMT+1 A Chinese …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","category-technology-trends-and-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aqqute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aqqute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aqqute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aqqute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aqqute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aqqute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aqqute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aqqute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aqqute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aqqute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}