February started with two Chinese launches. On Feb. 2, a Long March 2C rocket launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China at 23:37 UTC, carrying 11 satellites for a Geely Constellation.
A Chinese multistage solid rocket, Jielong-3, launched from a barge in coastal waters off Yangjiang in the South China Sea a few hours later on Feb. 3 at 03:06 UTC, after the first attempt was scrubbed. The payload consists of at least five satellites for a rideshare mission, including an interactive art installation venture, led by artists Xu Bing and Beijing Wanhu Creation.
After launching a Falcon 9 from all three of its operational launch pads in less than four days, SpaceX was targeting Feb. 3, at 6:43 PM PST (Feb. 4 at 03:43 UTC), for the next Starlink mission from Vandenberg. This mission has now been delayed due to unfavorable recovery conditions until no earlier than Feb. 6, 5:38 PM PST (Feb. 7, 01:38 UTC). SpaceX’s manifest continues with a Falcon 9 scheduled to loft NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission to a Sun-synchronous polar orbit on Feb. 6. High winds in the recovery zone have delayed this mission by 24 hours.