A Smart Dragon-3 carrier rocket carrying 11 satellites blasts off from Rizhao, Shandong province. [Photo/Tide News]

A Smart Dragon-3 carrier rocket lifted off from Rizhao, Shandong province, delivering 11 satellites for the Geesatcom, a low Earth orbit satellite constellation, into their planned orbit on Aug 9.

Geesatcom is being developed, built, and operated by Geespace, a science and technology innovation company under Geely Holding Group.

All the satellites are manufactured at Geely's satellite plant in the Taizhou Bay New Area in Taizhou, East China's Zhejiang province.

Utilizing intelligent equipment and processes from Zhejiang's automotive manufacturing cluster, the facility completes assembly, integration, and testing in under 28 days per satellite — achieving an annual capacity of 500 units, while cutting manufacturing costs by about 45 percent.

Phase one of Geesatcom plans for 72 satellites, with 41 already deployed. The company expects this number to reach 64 within two months. Current testing shows terminal communications success rates of 99.15 percent and network availability above 99.97 percent.

Focusing on emerging markets in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America, Geespace is building global space-based communications infrastructure.

The company has partnered with telecom operators in over 20 countries. Applications span smart mobility, marine fisheries, construction machinery, low-altitude travel, emergency communications, energy, and transportation.