Ceres-1 lucky thirteen reaches orbit! [Ceres-1 Y12]
This post was originally published on May 31st 2024 on Ko-fi.
Another Ceres-1 has launched not long after the last! This one was Y12 out of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, in northern China. For Galactic Energy, this was the thirteenth flight of a Ceres-1 rocket and the twelfth time one has reached orbit.
With this launch being from Jiuquan, state affiliated media in China can get away with skipping many details about the launch other than saying it happened. This is mainly due to Jiuquan being remote and the customers atop of the rocket wanting to be more discrete in case something goes wrong shortly after separation from the rocket.
We do know however that the launch took place from Launch Area 95A with the rocket headed to sun-synchronus orbit at 07:39 am Beijing Time on May 31st, or 23:39 pm Universal Coordinated Time on May 30th.
Atop of the Y12 vehicle were five satellites with them being:
Jiguang-01 (极光星座01)
Jiguang-02 (极光星座02)
Yunyao-1 25 (云遥一号25)
Yunyao-1 26 (云遥一号26)
Yunyao-1 14 (云遥一号14)
All five satellites are confirmed as being in an approximately 535 kilometer sun-synchronus orbit.
Beijing Aurora Star Communication Technology Co., Ltd., China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, Shanghai AES Aerospace, Galaxy Power Aerospace Company, Beijing Tianlian Measurement and Control, Fuchang Space, Xuntian Aerospace, the 29th Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, School of Information Science and Engineering of Fudan University, Shanghai Institute of Electric Power and other smaller participants jointly developed jiguang-01 and Jiguang-02 (wow that's a lot of collaboration). In space, they will test long-term laser communications tests between the two spacecraft and ground stations. If successful they will speed up the development of a larger constellation, likely Guowang, G60, or Honghu-3.
Yunyao-1 25 and 26 are infrared remote sensing satellites with onboard GNSS occultation and long-wave infrared camera instruments. Using their instruments, they will measure atmospheric temperature, humidity, pressure, and ionosphere electron density.
Yunyao-1 14 is jointly developed by Tianjin Yunyao Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing Juntian Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd. It will be used as a meteorological remote sensing satellite via a GNss occultation instrument. Yunyao-1 14 will measure the same areas as Yunyao-1 25 and 26. This satellite is different however as it can utilize an 'intelligent on-orbit management system' to improve the satellite's autonomous control.
The soonest another Ceres-1 may be expected to launch is on June 6th, signifying a massive increase in potential cadence. It also still shows that more satellites are waiting to launch in China than opportunities currently available. Galactic Energy however may just have a substantial backlog due to Ceres-1's estimated cost of 31 million Yuan Renminbi, or 4.28 million United States Dollars.
With today's launch, Galactic Energy has delivered twenty different customers payloads into orbit, for 44 satellites, in twelve launches since November 2020.