Between the Stars and the Earth: Geespace's 'Alternative' Connection.

Many people may not have noticed that airplanes and ships actually have two communication systems.

This is not redundant design but a mandatory standard. When a passenger plane flies over the ocean, its cockpit is equipped with at least two communication links with independent propagation mechanisms—one primary for daily operations and one backup for when the 'primary link goes offline.' Similarly, when a cargo ship sails into a storm, it must also be equipped with at least two communication methods to ensure that the backup link can immediately take over if the primary one fails. This is a hard requirement set by the International Maritime Organization.

However, in the global automotive market, with nearly 100 million vehicles sold annually, no safety regulations mandate that vehicles be equipped with redundant communication links. This means that communication backup in vehicles remains a commercial choice rather than a compliance threshold.

This might have been understandable in the past. After all, most cars operate in cities where ground signals are 'sufficient.' But intelligent vehicles are rewriting the rules: remote diagnostics, emergency rescue, and autonomous driving cloud takeover all rely on a consistently online communication link.

Ground-based cellular network coverage remains concentrated in areas of human activity, leaving vast mountainous regions, oceans, deserts, and uninhabited areas as communication dead zones. Entering tunnels, mountainous areas, uninhabited regions, or cross-border corridors, disconnections are not rare events. Navigation failure is just the mildest consequence; failure (failure) of remote diagnostics, inability to locate during emergency rescues, and forced degradation of autonomous driving all touch on safety bottom lines.

Why hasn't the automotive industry established a dual-link standard similar to that of the aviation industry? Because satellite communication terminals used to be too expensive, too large, and too power-hungry to fit into a family car.

But now, this bottleneck is being broken.

A Chinese commercial space company has integrated satellite communication terminals into mass-produced vehicles. Not concept cars, but passenger vehicles from brands like Zeekr, Lynk & Co, and Geely Galaxy, which have come standard or optional with these terminals since 2023. It provides a lifeline that remains 'must-available' in extreme environments, effectively replicating the compliance logic of backup networks from aviation and maritime to ground transportation.

This company is called Geespace. As commercial space transitions from policy dividends to value realization, its path deserves careful analysis.

01 An 'Alternative' Choice for Low-Earth Orbit Constellations

Wang Yang, a graduate of Harbin Institute of Technology, successively worked at Huawei and the Shanghai Micro-Satellite Innovation Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, gaining deep expertise in both the communications and aerospace industries.

Wang admits that when he first joined the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2008, China's commercial space industry was still in its infancy. Occasionally, information from overseas would mention SpaceX, but it remained a vague symbol.

Starting in 2014, the State Council explicitly encouraged private capital to enter the space sector for the first time. Wang quickly realized that low-Earth orbit satellite communication would be an inevitable direction for industry convergence. Thus, while retaining his position within the system, he founded China's first commercial space company, Ouko Space, becoming one of the earliest commercial satellite companies in China.

In 2018, with the vision of 'making satellite technology serve the public,' Wang founded Geespace, targeting low-Earth orbit satellite constellations as a key direction in commercial space and exploring new paths for the large-scale and industrialized development of satellite communication.

While many entrepreneurs were pondering 'how to launch satellites into space,' Wang was more concerned with another question: How can satellites truly serve ground-based industries?

From developing satellite systems engineering at the Chinese Academy of Sciences to venturing into commercial space entrepreneurship, Wang has always focused not on enhancing the performance of individual satellites but on how to make satellites a widely accessible infrastructure like water, electricity, and the internet. This mindset became the starting point for all of Geespace's strategic choices.

Geespace CEO Wang Yang

Notably, 14 of the 18 founding members are senior engineers with an average of 15 years of experience in the aerospace sector, many of whom are industry elites with backgrounds as chief satellite commanders or chief designers.

While many commercial space companies tell similar stories of 'low-Earth orbit constellations, high throughput, and low latency,' Wang chose a quieter path—building a network that 'never drops out.'

In his view, the largest future market for satellite communication may not come from a few users seeking high speeds but from the massive demand for 'continuous connectivity' across countless devices.

Rather than creating a faster network, he hoped to build a globally cover (covered) , always-reachable connection system. Facts have proven that this judgment allowed Geespace to lead in finding commercialization opportunities in the later waves of satellite IoT and in-vehicle satellite communication.

The core anchor point of this logic is not speed but 'connection' itself.

In the global mainstream competition for low-Earth orbit satellite communication, companies aim for the ultimate goal of 'replacing fiber optics,' seeking to seize broadband entry points with high throughput and low latency. Geespace's choice is precisely the opposite. It uses UHF/VHF frequency bands, which possess the strongest diffraction characteristics in the industry, with excellent penetration and rain fade resistance, ensuring signal stability even in extremely harsh weather conditions.

Rather than building a 'faster network,' they truly aim to construct a complete set of 'full-scenario accessibility' basic communication capabilities.

For ocean-going cargo ships, the ability to make video calls is less important than ensuring timely transmission of ship position and cargo information; construction machinery in uninhabited areas cares more about maintaining a continuous connection with dispatch platforms; the same goes for cross-border logistics containers and energy pipelines in remote areas. For these scenarios, the core pain point has never been insufficient network speed but the absence of any network connection.

More critically, in key industries like maritime, aviation, and energy, configuring redundant systems independent of the primary communication network is not an option but a compliance requirement. While broadband satellite systems often handle primary data transmission, true backup links must meet three stringent conditions: full global coverage, availability in extreme environments, and low-power, easy-to-deploy terminals.

Geespace's 'ultimate backup' logic precisely occupies this position, finding structural irreplaceability in scenarios with rigid demands.

02 Five Barriers and an Anti-Cyclical Logic

Geespace's differentiated positioning is not just empty 'differentiation competition' rhetoric; it is backed by a complete and difficult-to-replicate systemic capability.

For commercial space companies, true barriers come not just from technology itself but from the systemic advantages formed by technical, engineering, operational, and market capabilities.

From this perspective, Geespace's competitiveness does not stem from leading in any single technology but from the complete commercial closed loop (closed loop) it has formed.

Let's dissect five core dimensions:

First is the 'end-to-end' control capability built through full-stack self-research. From satellite design and development, satellite mass production AIT, constellation measurement and control, to the research, development, mass production, and scenario-based applications of core chips, modules, and terminals, Geespace achieves full-chain independent research and development.

Currently, it has planned and deployed 19 ground stations domestically, with overseas supporting construction progressing simultaneously. What does this mean? It means that from 'satellites in the sky' to 'terminals on the ground,' everything is within its controllable range. The engineering capabilities validated in the market determine the stability of constellation operations and the upper limits of subsequent commercialization expansion.

Second is the 'uniqueness' of the communication system and security foundation. Geespace adopts a self-developed communication system and private protocols, with user links using direct sequence spread spectrum, providing inherent concealment and anti-jamming capabilities.

Especially in fields like maritime safety regulation and critical infrastructure management, which have rigid demands for 'lifeline connections,' this secure communication method ensures its irreplaceable value.

Third is the underlying difference in spectrum selection. The choice of UHF/VHF frequency bands may seem like a technical issue but is actually a foundational design of the business logic. It naturally solves the core bottleneck of highly reliable connections: maintaining communication certainty and sustainability in extremely harsh weather conditions.

In other words, while other constellations continuously iterate terminal power consumption in orbit to improve spectrum utilization, Geespace chooses a technical solution to address the fundamental proposition of 'availability in complex environments.'

Fourth, as mentioned earlier, the compliance requirements for redundant communication in industries like maritime, aviation, and energy mean that 'backup links' are not nice-to-haves but necessary conditions. Geespace precisely positions itself as a 'backup network,' with its value lying not in daily usage frequency but in 'must-be-available in extreme cases.' To put it bluntly, this is an infrastructure service with strong rigid demand.

Finally, there is the low-power, miniaturized terminal system. The massive terminals in wide-area IoT scenarios are distributed in difficult-to-maintain areas, making them highly sensitive to power consumption, size, and operational costs. Geespace's low-power, miniaturized terminals can meet the continuous connection needs of 'long-term online,' making large-scale commercial deployment possible in terms of cost structure.

According to Berg Insight predictions, the number of global satellite IoT users will reach 26.7 million by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of 39.2%. Geespace's terminal system precisely targets the cost pain points of this growth curve.

If we use a broader perspective to understand this system, it actually aligns with another hot topic recently—the methodology behind Tao's Law.

Huawei proposed Tao's Law at IEEE ISCAS 2026, with its core being the replacement of 'geometric miniaturization' with 'temporal miniaturization,' shifting advancement from 'who has more precise photolithography machines' to 'who has more efficient system-level coordination.'

Applying Tao's Law logic to the satellite communication industry creates a fascinating resonance.

Rather than simply pursuing higher bandwidth or larger constellation scales, what truly determines commercial value is how many effective connections can be supported per unit cost and whether these connections can continuously generate service revenue.

In other words, while the number of satellites matters, what matters more is connection efficiency and commercial efficiency.

Geespace has chosen a highly isomorphic path, opting to build barriers around the goal of 'reliable connections in complex environments' through systemic coordination of spectrum selection, communication systems, and terminal power consumption, rather than engaging in a single-dimensional competition for 'ultimate speed.'

In many critical scenarios, 'uninterrupted connectivity' matters more than 'high speed.' Shifting the focus from single-dimensional metrics of 'path' back to the 'result' of connection availability is precisely the practice of Tao's Law thinking in space communication.

03 From Policy Logic to Commercial Realization: Validated Feasibility

A counterintuitive cognition (cognition) is that the true watershed in commercial space is not how many satellites have been launched but whether the constellation, once networked, possesses 'continuously stable service capabilities—the ability to acquire users and generate revenue.'

In September 2025, Geespace completed the first phase of its constellation network, with 64 satellites operating stably in orbit, achieving global communication coverage for any location except the North and South Poles. It became the first low-Earth orbit satellite communication constellation in China with large-scale commercialization capabilities. The constellation system processes approximately 340 million communication requests daily, supporting service capabilities for 20 million users worldwide.

In terms of commercial implementation, the trajectory is clear and traceable.

Many ask: Why has Geespace been the first to achieve large-scale applications among domestic companies deploying satellite constellations?

A key reason is that from its inception, the company did not define itself as a 'satellite launcher' but as a provider of connection services.

Satellites are merely infrastructure; connection services are the ultimate product. For this reason, Geespace simultaneously laid out terminals, industry applications, and operational systems from the beginning rather than waiting for the constellation to be built before seeking markets.

The in-vehicle scenario served as the first 'ballast stone.' In 2023, the Zeekr 001 FR, equipped with Geespace's satellite communication terminal, went into mass production and hit the market. Subsequently, most Zeekr models and some Lynk & Co and Geely Galaxy models were equipped with Geespace's self-developed bidirectional satellite communication technology. With over 30 million cars sold annually in China, the 'vehicle' entrance, with its tens of millions of users, provides real demand for the constellation's normalized operations.

Next, Robotaxi is validating 'full-domain availability.' In 2025, Geespace collaborated with Cao Cao Mobility to conduct tens of thousands of kilometers of road tests, demonstrating that vehicles could maintain connections with operational platforms even in weak- or no-network environments. For autonomous driving, this represents a crucial step from 'partial availability' to 'full-domain availability.'

As industry application scenarios steadily expand, Geespace has completed application pilots in maritime and fisheries scenarios in Oman, Middle East, and Taizhou, Zhejiang, and deeply collaborated with leading companies like Zoomlion in the construction machinery sector. Overseas, it has established partnerships with telecom operators in over 20 countries, covering fields such as marine fisheries, smart transportation, energy management, and emergency communication.

For constellation networking, the plan is to complete the first phase of 72 satellites by 2026, with the constellation system capable of handling 450 million communication requests daily. The second-phase plan for 264 satellites is based on 3GPP standards, with test satellites already launched and in orbit in 2025 for validation.

From policy dividends to technical layout and then to commercial implementation, the most difficult link in this chain—how to transform satellite assets from 'money-burning projects' into 'money-making assets'—has found a validated path.

In 2025, Geespace secured a 2 billion yuan strategic investment from the Zhejiang New Energy Vehicle Industry Fund. The positive feedback from the capital market serves as a footnote to the feasibility of its business model. For the heavy-asset, long-cycle commercial space industry, the capital market increasingly focuses on companies' real operational capabilities and commercial realization abilities. This investment not only recognizes Geespace's technical strength but also reflects long-term optimism about its business model and future growth potential.

Wang Yang's next KPI is to reach 2 million users within three years.

This is both a user growth target and an important marker of Geespace's transition from a builder of space infrastructure to a global satellite communication service provider.

In Wang's view, commercial space is fundamentally an infrastructure industry.

'All infrastructure industries must go through three stages—capacity building, scale building, and value realization.'

Over the past few years, China's commercial space industry has completed capacity building from 0 to 1. In the coming years, the industry's true question will be: Who can continuously acquire users, generate revenue, and achieve growth?

In the first round of competition in the commercial space industry, the focus was on who could launch satellites into space. The next round of competition will center on who can enable satellites to continuously generate cash flow.

While more and more companies are still proving that 'satellites can fly,' Geespace has already started to demonstrate something even more crucial—satellites can not only fly but also become a continuously growing business.

And this, perhaps, is the true watershed moment for commercial space to transition from a concept to an industry, and from a trending topic to the realization of value.

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