A car with folding wings takes a test drive on a road. (Photo: GT)

Renowned private Chinese automaker Geely is recruiting chief rocket engineers to fulfill its grand commercial satellite plans.

Yang Xueliang, deputy president of Geely, confirmed the recruitment on Chinese social media platform Weibo, saying that "Geely is not making its own rockets, and the hiring of chief rocket engineers is for the firm's rocket and satellite integration plans.

"The satellites were self-developed [by Geely], while the rockets were purchased from other firms," Yang said.

Geely on March 3 launched its satellite intelligent assembly, integration and test (AIT) center in Taizhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, lifting the curtain on its comprehensive layout in the field of commercial satellites, according to an online statement from the company.

The AIT center plans to establish facilities including a satellite research and development center, a components intelligent manufacturing center, an inspection and control center, a big data platform, among others, aiming to assemble and test different satellites.

Geely has been accelerating investment in digital science and technology in recent years, actively laying out an intelligent three-dimensional travel ecology, and promoting itself to transform into an innovative technology enterprise, said the corporate statement.

As the first auto company in China to independently develop low-orbit satellites, Geely made a strategic investment in aerospace science and technology company Geespace in 2018, and began to layout an integrated land and aerospace travel ecology.

Two low-orbit satellites designed by Geespace have passed various stages of tests and are expected to be launched within the year, according to the company's statement.