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Chinese private space firm Galactic Energy said that its new CERES-2 rocket conducted a maiden flight on Saturday, but an anomaly occurred and the mission ended in failure, according to a statement the company sent to the Global Times on Saturday.

The rocket blasted off at 12:08 pm (Beijing Time) at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, but an anomaly occurred during its flight, the Xinhua News Agency also reported, noting that the cause of this failure is under investigation.

Galactic Energy also said in a statement that it extends its sincerest apologies to all parties involved in the mission, vowing to make every effort to identify the cause of the failure, and rigorously carry out fault rectification and return-to-flight preparations for the CERES-2 rocket to ensure the success of future launch missions.

The flight came the day after a CERES-1 launch mission on Friday, which successfully placed four satellites into orbit.

CERES-2 is a medium-class solid-fuel carrier rocket designed for flexible, truck-based launches. It has been developed through technological upgrades to CERES-1, and the earlier model has completed 21 launches and delivered 89 satellites into space.

CERES-2 combines solid-fuel propulsion in its first three stages with a liquid-fuel upper stage. The rocket has a liftoff weight of about 100 tons and can carry up to 1.6 tons to a 500-kilometer low-Earth orbit, or 1.3 tons to a Sun-synchronous orbit at the same altitude, according to the official website of the company.

Global Times