Chinese commercial rocket launches new satellites from sea for IoT constellation

China launched a group of satellites from the waters near its eastern Shandong Province on Friday morning.

The commercial rocket, CERES-1 Y7, carrying four satellites for the Tianqi constellation, blasted off at 4:10 a.m., and sent them into the preset orbit.

CERES-1, developed by the Beijing-based commercial rocket maker Galactic Energy, is a small, solid-propellant rocket designed for sending micro-satellites to low-Earth orbit (LEO).

The Tianqi constellation is China's first LEO Internet of Things (IoT) data communication constellation, featuring global coverage, miniaturization, low power consumption and cost-effectiveness. It can provide consumer-grade satellite IoT data services to global users, covering space, air, ground and sea.

It has been widely applied in industries such as forestry, agriculture, emergency response, tourism, water conservancy, electric power, oil, marine, ecological environment, smart cities and the digital economy.

The offshore mission was conducted by the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, and was the 23rd flight mission by the CERES-1 carrier rocket.