Doha: China launched Monday a Ceres-1 rocket carrying five satellites from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. The Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that the rocket was launched Monday evening and sent a group of satellites, including the Uniao-1 37-40 model and the JTX-A-05 model, into their planned orbits.

According to Qatar News Agency, the Uniao-1 37-40 satellites will all be equipped with a payload for radio occultation instruments for the Global Navigation Satellite System, which can obtain information on temperature, humidity, pressure, and electron density in the ionosphere.