Following its historic December launch and landing of a rocket at Cape Canaveral, SpaceX will attempt another feat: landing a rocket booster on a ship at sea.
On Sunday Jan. 17, the company plans to launch its Falcon 9 rocket (carrying NASA's Jason-3 satellite) from Vandenburg Air Force Base in California. Then it will attempt to land the rocket's booster on a drone ship, SpaceX told NBC News.
On Jan. 11, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the landing attempt will happen:
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 12, 2016
—SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 12, 2016
The company has made a lot of progress since then. On Dec. 21, it successfully launched then guided a rocket back to Earth, ushering in a new era of reusable rockets.
A land-based landing was impressive, but as Musk points out, a ship landing is critical for the missions that require really fast launch speeds.
If SpaceX lands its rocket safely, it would be another success in furthering a revolution in space exploration. Instead of discarding rockets after one-time use, the company would save millions of dollars in reusing them for years to come.
The company hasn't said much more about the launch as of yet, but we do know about the payload. The rocket will be carrying the Jason-3 satellite, the fourth mission in a joint US-Europe series of missions meant to track the height of the ocean surface, according to NASA.
Here's what a previous, unsuccessful landing, looked like:
