PALLAS-1 rocket completes maiden flight

Jiuquan (ANTARA) - China on Tuesday (1/9) successfully launched the PALLAS-1 Y1 carrier rocket into space from the Dongfeng commercial space innovation zone in north-western China.

The rocket lifted off at 10:00 Beijing Time (09:00 WIB) and operated normally throughout the flight, delivering its payload to the predetermined orbit.

All testing objectives were achieved, and the mission was a complete success.

The mission marks the maiden flight of the PALLAS-1, a medium-sized two-stage liquid-fuel carrier rocket developed independently by Galactic Energy.

The rocket has a length of 52 metres and a core stage diameter of 3.35 metres, with a liftoff mass of approximately 283 tonnes and a liftoff thrust of 350 tonnes. The rocket is capable of carrying payloads of 5 to 7 tonnes into Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

“This rocket is designed to provide efficient and cost-effective ‘space express’ services for commercial satellite customers,” said an executive from Galactic Energy.

The rocket’s main propulsion system utilises the CQ-50 liquid oxygen-kerosene engine, developed independently by the company, with seven engines arranged in parallel on the first stage.

This configuration is designed to meet requirements for recovery and reuse while providing redundancy in the event of a failure.

A series of tests demonstrated that the engines can throttle thrust from 32 per cent to 105 per cent of nominal thrust.

The company stated that the rocket is also equipped with an integrated structural and propulsion design, an additional bipropellant propulsion system, and multi-dimensional aerodynamic load reduction technology.

The rocket can also be equipped with the EROS-2 upper stage for greater mission flexibility.