By Simon Mansfield Space War
Galactic Energy, a Beijing-based private aerospace firm, successfully launched its Ceres 1 rocket on Friday evening, sending six satellites into orbit to support China’s growing space-based weather monitoring capabilities.
The company confirmed in a statement that liftoff occurred at 7:07 p.m. from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, situated in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. The rocket carried its payload to a sun-synchronous orbit approximately 535 kilometers above the Earth.
These six payloads are components of the Yunyao constellation, a network designed to collect meteorological data from space. The satellites will measure key atmospheric parameters such as temperature, humidity, and pressure. According to Galactic Energy, the Yunyao system now includes 22 satellites that have been launched aboard Ceres 1 vehicles.
This launch marked the second deployment of a Ceres 1 rocket within the same week. On Monday, a previous mission delivered eight satellites into orbit.
Ceres 1 is a solid-fuel rocket standing 20 meters tall with a diameter of 1.4 meters. It weighs 33 metric tons at launch and is capable of transporting either a single satellite weighing up to 300 kilograms or multiple smaller satellites with a combined weight of 300 kilograms to a sun-synchronous orbit at 500 kilometers altitude. It can also deliver payloads up to 350 kilograms to a low-Earth orbit at around 200 kilometers altitude.
Friday’s operation represented the 19th flight of the Ceres 1 series, bringing the total number of commercial satellites launched by the model to 77. Galactic Energy noted that Ceres 1 holds the highest success rate among all private-sector rockets in China. The mission was also China’s 14th space launch of 2025.
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interesting
Really interesting update on the satellite launches, thanks for sharing. Do you know if all the data from these satellites is publicly available or is it mostly for government use?