The 14th launch of a New Shepard rocket will send a space capsule past the edge of space to test the system ahead of its first passenger flights.

In 2012, the Gateway Foundation was founded with the purpose of building the world’s first rotating space station in orbit – known as The Gateway. This is no easy task and must be preceded by establishing the necessary infrastructure in orbit and the creation of a series of smaller structures to test the concept. This includes the Voyager Class station, a rotating structure designed to produce varying levels of artificial gravity.

In recent months, the Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC) – founed in 2018 by the Gateway team – began working on a crucial component, known as the DSTAR. These and other updates about their Voyager Class station were the subjects of a recent video featuring Foundation and OAC CEO John Blincow. According to Blincow, he and his colleagues will be performing a demonstration and making a big announcement in the coming weeks!

The design for The Gateway was inspired by the Von Braun Wheel, a proposal made by German rocket scientist and space architect Wernher von Braun. This, in turn, was inspired by earlier concepts like the pinwheel space station prosed by Russian scientist and “father of astronautics” Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. In 1903, he released a treatise titled, Exploration of Outer Space by Means of Rocket Devices.

The capsule will bring back science experiments from the International Space Station.

Tampa will take part in some Florida space history Wednesday night as the SpaceX Dragon 2 will splash down from space just west of Tampa Bay.

EL SEGUNDO, California — Rocket building startup ABL Space, founded by veterans of SpaceX and Morgan Stanley, is in the final stretch of preparations for its inaugural launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

“We’re tracking toward vehicle readiness in March,” ABL president and CFO Dan Piemont told CNBC on Monday during a tour of the company’s Los Angeles-area facilities.

“We’re working on the last bits of scheduling with the [Vandenberg launch] range. We do think that could push us into Q2, so right now no earlier than March but no later than June is the plan,” Piemont added.