SpaceX hopes to make history again on Jan. 17 with a rocket landing on its drone ship

SpaceX hopes to make history again on Jan. 17 by landing a Falcon 9 rocket on a drone ship at sea after launching a payload into orbit. SpaceX confirmed to NBC News that it would be making the attempt; the news was earlier reported by space journalist Charles Lurio on Twitter.

SpaceX will try to land the Falcon 9 first stage on a drone ship during the Jason-3 launch from Vandenberg AFB on January 17.

— Charles A. Lurio (@TheLurioReport) January 7, 2016

This launch will take off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying NASA’s Jason-3 satellite. Jason-3 carries instruments to monitor the ocean’s surface, collecting information about circulation patterns and perhaps rising sea levels.

The commercial spaceflight company succeeded Dec. 21 in making its first-stage rocket, which is usually discarded after reaching space, return safely to Earth and land upright at a predetermined location nears its launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The Spacex Stage that was landed in December will be kept for Museum Display

"I think we’ll probably keep this one on the ground because it’s quite unique, it’s the first one we brought back," Musk said in a conference call following December’s successful landing. The company will "just confirm through tests that it could fly again and then put it somewhere to display."