(Yicai) Sept. 6 -- Galactic Energy has become the first private Chinese space launch company to send a rocket into orbit from a sea platform and the first to send satellites into tilted orbit 800 kilometers above the earth.

A Ceres-1 solid-fueled rocket carrying four satellites took off from a sea platform off the coast of eastern Shandong province yesterday, the Beijing-based firm said today.

This is also the world’s first unsupported land and sea universal platform launch and the world’s first unguided thermal launch of a solid rocket at sea, it added. 

The mission was the ninth liftoff for the Ceres-1, which was Galactic’s first rocket to start commercial flights in November 2020. It extends Galactic’s successful record in land take offs to sea launches, it added.

The company will increase the number of sea-based launches of the Ceres-1 at the same pace as land launches to promote high-density liftoffs, the company said. Sea launches are less expensive and more flexible than land launches in terms of choosing the lift-off and touchdown sites.

Founded in February 2018, Galactic aims to provide global aerospace markets with flexible, fast and economical commercial launch service solutions. In January, the firm secured CNY1.2 billion (USD164 million) in its latest fundraising round led by Oriental Fortune Capital Investment Management and Shanghai Huaqiang Equity Investment Management

Editor: Kim Taylor