Galaxy Energy fails to launch Chinese Ceres-1 rocket for first time

The Chinese Ceres-1 rocket belonging to the Galaxy Energy private company was unable to launch a payload into low-Earth orbit due to an anomaly during the launch.

The rocket launched into orbit from the launch pad of the Jiuquan Cosmodrome at 12:59 Beijing time (08:59 Baku time). It was supposed to launch the Jilin-1 Gaofen-04B Earth remote sensing satellite into orbit, Interfax reports citing the company.

The rocket was unable to reach orbit. At the moment, specialists are investigating the causes of the accident.

The accident was the first one for this rocket. Previously, the company conducted nine successful launches in a row.

The four-stage ultra-light rocket Ceres-1 is capable of launching up to 350 kg into low-Earth orbit and up to 230 kg into sun-synchronous orbit up to 700 km altitude.