BEIJING, Sep. 5< /strong>China on Tuesday successfully launched four satellites into orbit using a commercial launch vehicle Ceres-1, which was launched from an offshore platform in the Yellow Sea, rocket developer Galactic Energy said.
The launch took place on Tuesday at 17.34 local time (12.34 Moscow time) from a platform in the waters near the city of Haiyan in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong. The mission was led by a team from the Taiyuan Cosmodrome, which is located in Shanxi Province in northern China.
The rocket successfully launched the Tianqi-21, Tianqi-22, Tianqi-23 and Tianqi-24 satellites, which are part of the Tianqi Constellation satellite constellation, which will consist of 38 satellites and several ground stations. The constellation is expected to be fully deployed and operational in 2024.
The Ceres-1 (Gushenxing-1) solid-propellant rocket was developed by private Chinese company Galactic Energy to provide high-quality and low-cost small commercial satellite launch services to Chinese and foreign customers. The length of the rocket is about 20 meters, diameter — 1.4 meters, launch weight — 33 tons. It can carry a load with a total mass of about 300 kilograms into a sun-synchronous orbit.
Galactic Energy notes that the mission received the code name “The Little Mermaid”, and this launch was the ninth for the Ceres-1 series launch vehicles.