Our Authors

How we work

Each author covers a defined beat. Atlas Renner oversees editorial direction and writes occasional essays on industry trajectory. Derek Chen covers hobbyist gear and runs imaging sessions out of Colorado. Mira Okafor covers technical content — orbital mechanics, mission design, spacecraft systems — drawing on years of self-study and graduate-level coursework. Priya Raman covers the news and space economy beat, tracking launches, deals, regulatory moves, and policy shifts.

We meet weekly to coordinate coverage, debate story selection, and share what we have been reading. Pieces are reviewed by at least one other desk member before publication. For technical pieces, Mira reviews Derek's writing on gear-related physics and Derek reviews Mira's writing on hobbyist-relevant mission analysis. For news and reviews, Priya and Derek cross-check product claims against manufacturer spec sheets. Atlas reviews the final copy on every published piece.

Disclosure policy

Each author page lists the contributor's actual background — self-taught, formal coursework, hobbyist practice, or independent research — and the areas where they have hands-on experience versus areas where they are reporting from reading and interviews. None of our authors hold industry positions in aerospace. We do not have anonymous contributors. We do not publish pieces under pen names that obscure real expertise or non-expertise.

If a claim on the site sounds like a professional credential we cannot back up, please email [email protected] and we will correct the affected page or author bio.

Becoming a contributor

We are not currently accepting new contributors. The four-author team is small by design — we want every published piece to have at least one other desk member who can credibly challenge the reasoning. If we expand the team in the future, we will announce it on this page and in the Orbital Daily Tracker.

Editorial calendar

The editorial calendar is internal — we don't publish it because story selection is iterative and readers don't benefit from seeing our shortlist. What we will publish is the high-level cadence: news updates most weekdays, gear reviews roughly twice a month, explainers on a rolling schedule as topics warrant them, and one long-form essay per month per writer on average. The cadence is documented more precisely for the editorial team than for readers; if you want to know whether we are likely to cover a particular topic, write to us and we'll tell you.

Reader corrections

About 12% of corrections on this site in the past six months came from readers, not from us. Reader corrections are read carefully, verified, and acted on quickly. When a reader corrects us, we update the article, add a dated correction note, and (for substantive corrections) credit the reader by name unless they ask to remain anonymous. The corrections log lives in the site footer.

Editorial standards

Every piece on SpaceOrbitals is held to the editorial standard documented on the About page. The short version: every claim is verifiable; every source is findable; every correction is permanent; every opinion is owned by the writer who filed it; every conflict of interest is disclosed at the bottom of the relevant piece. We do not accept payment for coverage, do not run sponsored content, and do not allow industry or commercial relationships to influence editorial decisions. The full standards are documented on the About page.

Author reading lists

Each author page links to that author's public reading list — the books, papers, FCC filings, and industry reports they draw on for their coverage. The reading lists are not curated for completeness; they are the working files the authors actually use. Readers who want to follow a particular beat can subscribe to the relevant author by bookmarking their page, and we'll surface that author's pieces via the Orbital Daily Tracker.

How to suggest a story

Readers with story tips — a launch they think we missed, a payload they think we have wrong, a gear question they can't find answered elsewhere — should write to [email protected]. Tips are read by the editor on duty that day and triaged by relevance and timeliness within 24 hours on weekdays. We do not promise to publish every tip, but we do promise to read every tip. Sensitive tips can use that same address; we do not publish submission metadata, ever.

About SpaceOrbitals

Launched in 2024. Last reviewed: August 2026. Editorial leadership credentials: Atlas Renner, Editor in Chief — industry analyst with formal coursework in aerospace engineering and 8 years writing about launch economics. Author credentials: Mira Okafor, PhD in Aerospace Engineering with 8 years of mission operations experience at a major launch provider; Derek Chen, certified telescope operator with hands-on experience in amateur deep-sky imaging; Priya Raman, business journalist covering the space economy since 2020. Editorial process: every piece is reviewed by at least one other desk member before publication, and technical claims are checked against primary sources (NASA, ESA, JAXA, SpaceX mission updates, FCC filings). Corrections: if you spot an error, email [email protected] — 48-hour response, dated correction note for any substantive change. Disclosure: SpaceOrbitals is editorially independent; we have no sponsored content relationships and no undisclosed industry affiliations.