China's Ceres-1 rocket successfully launched three satellites into orbit on Tuesday, China Central Television reported.

The launch took place at 12:11 p.m. local time Tuesday from the Jiuquan launch site in Gansu province in northwest China. The rocket put into orbit two Taijing-1 satellites and one Donghai-1 satellite. The satellites are intended for remote sensing of the Earth.

The Ceres-1 solid-propellant rocket (Guangxing-1) was developed by Galactic Energy, a private Chinese company, to provide Chinese and foreign customers with high-quality and low-cost launch services for small commercial satellites.

The rocket is about 20 meters long, 1.4 meters in diameter and has a launch mass of 33 tons. It can carry a cargo with a total mass of about 300 kilograms into a sun-synchronous orbit.

This was the third launch of the Ceres-1 series launcher.