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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.

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.

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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.

A previous attempt in January 2015 to land a Falcon 9 on a "drone ship" — an automated seagoing landing platform — nearly succeeded, but a last-minute failure saw the rocket topple over and explode in spectacular fashion.

Related: Here's Why the SpaceX Rocket Landing Is Such a Big Deal

Having a mobile landing platform means more flexibility in when and how launches can proceed — it's not always convenient or possible for a rocket to return to a static site like a launch facility or other suitably flat, empty space. A mobile landing site could conceivably be placed where it is safest or most fuel-efficient for the rocket to come down.

This will not be the exact same rocket the company launched last month — though SpaceX founder Elon Musk is confident that would be just fine.

Falcon 9 back in the hangar at Cape Canaveral. No damage found, ready to fire again. https://t.co/7w6IfJGtXM — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 1, 2016

"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."