CERES 1 rocket developed by private Beijing company deploys two satellites

Galactic Energy, a private rocket maker in Beijing, launched the 11th flight mission of its CERES 1 rocket on Tuesday morning to deploy two satellites into orbit.

The rocket blasted off at 7:33 am at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert and placed the Tianyan 16 and Starpool 1A satellites into their preset orbits, the company said in a news release.

The Tianyan 16, designed and built by the Beijing-based private company Cultivate Space, is a meteorological satellite equipped with passive microwave detection equipment. It can measure the vertical layers of atmospheric temperature and humidity, and can also survey precipitation, sea surface pressure and the structure of typhoons.