China's private rocket maker deploys six satellites into orbit

Galactic Energy, a private rocket maker in Beijing, conducted a launch of its Ceres 1 rocket on Friday evening, deploying six satellites into orbit.

The company said in a news release that the rocket lifted off at 7:07 pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and placed the satellites in a sun-synchronous orbit about 535 kilometers above Earth.

The six satellites are parts of the Yunyao space-based weather monitoring network and will gather atmospheric data, including temperature, humidity and pressure. By now, 22 satellites in the Yunyao network have ridden abroad Ceres 1 rockets to reach orbit, according to Galactic Energy.

This has been the second Ceres 1 flight this week. A Ceres 1 was launched on Monday to place eight satellites into orbit.

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

Friday's launch was the 19th flight of the Ceres 1, which has placed 77 commercial satellites into orbit. The model now has the highest success rate among all Chinese private rockets. The mission was China's 14th space launch of the year.