At 18:11, Beijing time, on January 20, 2025, Galactic Energy Aerospace Company successfully launched the Ceres-1 (Y16) carrier rocket (mission code: On Your Shoulders) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, deploying five satellites, namely Yunyao-1 37-40 and Jitianxing A-05, into a 535-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit.
The four satellites, namely Weibo VIP Satellite (Yunyao-1 37), Kaiwu Constellation·Jinding Experimental Satellite (Yunyao-1 38), Huaqing Haifeng Satellite (Yunyao-1 39), and Yunyao-1 40, share identical technical configurations, all equipped with GNSS occultation payloads. By inverting GNSS occultation data, they can derive atmospheric temperature, humidity, pressure, and ionospheric electron density products. These capabilities hold broad application prospects and value in fields such as meteorological observation, demonstration scenarios for the Kaiwu Interstellar Mining Internet, and comprehensive data support and technical services for AIGE's future mining initiatives.
Jitianxing A-05 is equipped with a hyperspectral camera payload to capture remote sensing images, which can be applied in various fields including ecological monitoring, industrial emissions, gas leak detection, agricultural monitoring, mineral exploration, environmental monitoring, forest management, and urban planning.
At present, the Ceres-1 rocket has successfully completed 16 launches, delivering 63 satellites into their predetermined orbits, making it the most frequently launched and most successful commercial carrier rocket in the private aerospace sector. The Ceres-1 (Y16) rocket is the first carrier rocket manufactured and assembled at Galactic Energy's next-generation solid vehicle R&D and production base in Ziyang, Sichuan, and also the first private commercial carrier rocket made in Sichuan. Currently, the base has completed the assembly and testing of three additional Ceres-series rockets.