Chinese private firm Galactic Energy launches four satellites from sea

China's commercial space company Galactic Energy has conducted its second sea launch mission coded "Beautiful World."

The CERES-1S Y2 carrier rocket blasted off from a mobile launch platform in the waters off the coast of east China's Shandong Province at 4:12 p.m. on Wednesday, sending Tianqi Constellation satellites 25 to 28 into the 850-kilometer low Earth orbit.

The CERES-1S launch vehicle

The CERES-1S is a sea-launch version of the company's mature rocket model, the CERES-1.

The four-stage rocket can carry a payload of about 300 kilograms to a Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 500 km.

It can adapt to flexible launch points and landing areas and provide high-quality and low-cost launch services for various types of small satellites.

The Tianqi Constellation

The four satellites launched in this mission can provide global near real-time streaming and short message data transmission services. They are part of the Tianqi low-Earth orbit Internet of Things constellation, operated by Chinese commercial sci-tech firm Guodian Gaoke.

The Tianqi constellation consists of 38 satellites and some ground stations. Twenty-five satellites are currently in operation. Once completed, the constellation will provide global data services for various application scenarios, promoting the technological upgrading of China's Internet of Things information industry.

It has already been used in various industries, including forestry, agriculture, emergency, tourism, water conservancy, electricity, petroleum, ocean, ecological environment, smart cities and many other scenarios in the digital economy. It is also being applied to the consumer electronics products market, including mobile phones, cars, walkie-talkies, wearable devices and emergency kits, which can be directly linked to the satellites.

(Photographers: Li Xiaohan, Wang Jingtian, Yang Hao)