Galactic Energy completes sixth sea-based launch of Ceres 1 rocket

Galactic Energy, a private rocket maker in Beijing, conducted the sixth sea-based launch mission of its Ceres 1 carrier rocket on Friday morning.

The company said in a news release that the rocket blasted off at 4:10 am from a mobile launch platform in the Yellow Sea off the eastern province of Shandong and sent four satellites into a low-Earth orbit about 850 kilometers above the Earth.

The satellites were built by Guodian Gaoke, a Beijing-based private satellite operator, for its Tianqi network, which now has 41 satellites and global coverage following the latest launch. The network collects data for the internet of things and has been used in fields such as forestry, agriculture, tourism, power generation, and environmental protection, according to Galactic Energy.

The Ceres 1 model performed its maiden flight in November 2020 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, becoming the second privately developed Chinese carrier rocket to successfully complete an orbital mission, after i-Space's SQX 1.

The solid-propellant Ceres 1 model stands about 20 meters tall, with a diameter of 1.4 meters. It primarily burns solid propellant and has a liftoff weight of 33 tons. It can deliver a single 300-kilogram satellite or multiple satellites with a combined weight of 300 kg into a 500-km sun-synchronous orbit. It can also carry a 350-kg payload to a low-Earth orbit at an altitude of 200 km.

To date, 21 of the rocket's 23 flights have been successful, placing 89 commercial satellites into orbit.