China sea launch boosts private rocket activity in 2026

by Riko Seibo
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 30, 2026
Galactic Energy has opened Chinas 2026 commercial launch campaign with a pre dawn sea based mission of its Ceres 1 carrier rocket on January 17, extending the companys record of frequent small satellite launches from both land and ocean platforms.

The latest flight lifted off at 4:10 am local time from a mobile barge in the Yellow Sea off the coast of Shandong province, sending four commercial satellites into low Earth orbit.

The payloads, built by Beijing based Guodian Gaoke, will expand the companys Tianqi internet of things constellation to 41 satellites, enabling global coverage for data collection services.

According to Galactic Energy, the Tianqi network is already supporting applications in forestry, agriculture, tourism, power generation and environmental protection, providing machine to machine connectivity in remote areas.

Ceres 1 first reached orbit in November 2020 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, becoming the second privately developed Chinese orbital launcher after i Spaces SQX 1.

The solid fuel rocket is about 20 meters tall with a diameter of 1.4 meters and a liftoff mass of 33 metric tons, targeting the growing market for small payload launches.

Ceres 1 can carry a single 300 kilogram spacecraft or a cluster of satellites totaling 300 kilograms to a 500 kilometer sun synchronous orbit, or a 350 kilogram payload to a 200 kilometer low Earth orbit.

With this mission, the rocket has flown 23 times, placing 89 commercial satellites into orbit, with 21 of those launches reported as successful.

Galactic Energy is also preparing the debut launch of its larger Ceres 2 solid propellant vehicle from Jiuquan, aiming to offer higher capacity services to domestic and international customers.

Other Chinese commercial launch firms plan to introduce new vehicles in the near term, including Orienspaces Gravity 2, Deep Blue Aerospaces Nebula 1 and Space Pioneers TL 3.

In a separate mission, China conducted a Long March 2C launch on Thursday afternoon, orbiting the AlSat 3A remote sensing satellite for Algeria from the Jiuquan spaceport.

China Great Wall Industry, the contractor for the mission and the international commercial arm of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, said the rocket lifted off at 12:01 pm and successfully placed the spacecraft into its planned orbit.

AlSat 3A, developed by the China Academy of Space Technology, will provide data and imagery for land use planning, disaster prevention and mitigation in Algeria.

The satellite is the first delivered under a July 2023 agreement between China Great Wall Industry and the Algerian Space Agency, which covers two optical remote sensing satellites, ground infrastructure, training and support services.

The mission marks another step in space cooperation between China and Algeria, following the launch of the Alcomsat 1 communications satellite in December 2017.