NBC News says that SpaceX has confirmed a report tweeted today by space journalist Charles Lurio that SpaceX will attempt to land a Falcon 9 booster on a drone barge in the Pacific Ocean as part of the Jason 3 mission launch on January 17.

On Friday afternoon, Lurio tweeted, "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." The Jason 3 satellite is an international mission run by NOAA, NASA, the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), and European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). It's designed to study ocean surface waves as well as oceanic weather and climate and will launch into low-Earth orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.