Jilin-1 High Resolution 04B

Galactic Energy's Ceres-1 solid rocket flew abnormally shortly after liftoff from Jiuquan and failed to reach orbit, losing the Jilin-1 Gaofen-04B remote-sensing satellite. It was the company's first failure after nine straight successes, later traced to abnormal ablation of the first-stage engine nozzle.

Outcome

Failure

Orbit

SSO

Sun-synchronous orbit

Payload to orbit

Did not reach orbit

Flight

9th

of 17 Ceres-1 flights

Date and time

21 September 2023, 04:59 UTC

Rocket

Ceres-1

Builder

Galactic Energy

Launch site

Launch Area 95A, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Payload

Earth Science

Launches in 2023

156th of 223