Ceres-1 is China's newest entry to the small satellite launch market. Developed by Chinese company Galactic Energy (or Beijing Xinghe Dongli Space Technology Co. Ltd.). Named after the first asteroid discovered by humans. Ceres is the goddess of agriculture and harvest in Roman mythology.

Stats

Height: 19 m (62 ft)

Diameter: 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in)

Payload capacity: 400 kg (880 lb) to low Earth orbit or 300 kg (660 lb) to 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit.

Ceres-1 is a four-stage rocket, the first three stages use solid-propellant rocket motors and the final stage uses a hydrazine propulsion system.

Ceres-1 first launched on November 7th, 2020, taking the Tianqi 11 satellite to a sun-synchronous orbit making Galactic Energy the second private Chinese firm, after iSpace, to reach orbit.

Courtesy of Galactic Energy.

The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center is a Chinese spaceport located in the Gobi desert, about 1,600 km from Beijing. It is part of the Dongfeng Aerospace City.

Image: VCG