Pallas 1 rocket makes successful debut flight

Galactic Energy, a Beijing-based private rocket maker, conducted the debut flight of its Pallas 1 liquid-propellant rocket model on Tuesday morning. The launch took place at 10 am at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China, with the 52-meter rocket lifting off from its dedicated launch tower and soon reaching a predetermined orbit, according to Galactic Energy.

The Pallas 1 is the 50th type of carrier rocket China has developed and flown, and the 12th private rocket built and used in the country. The company stated that it will use the Pallas 1 to secure orders for large-scale constellation deployment and heavyweight satellite launch services.

The new model features a two-stage configuration with an optional upper stage. It has a core-stage diameter of 3.35 meters, a liftoff weight of approximately 283 metric tons, and a liftoff thrust of 350 tons.

Galactic Energy said the model is capable of transporting up to seven tons of payloads to a low-Earth orbit, which meets the major demands from commercial satellite operators needing to deploy their assets in such orbits.

Designed to be reused at least 24 times, the Pallas 1 is intended to become a high-efficiency, low-cost "space shuttle" for commercial satellite firms, according to the company. Before the new rocket, Galactic Energy had developed two models, Ceres 1 and Ceres 2, and used them to carry out 24 launches, sending nearly 90 satellites into various orbits.