Got Something To Say?

a graphic of a speech bubble coming out of a person's silhouetted head

SpaceNews is committed to publishing diverse perspectives. Whether you’re an academic, executive, engineer or even just a concerned citizen of the cosmos, send in your arguments and viewpoints and we’ll consider them for publication. Once accepted, a SpaceNews editor will work with you to get your article ready for publication; you should expect to see both big- and small-picture feedback before getting your article online.

Before sending in a submission or pitch to opinion (at) spacenews.com, please take a few minutes to look at the opinion articles we’ve recently published. It will give you a sense of what we look for in a successful submission.  

  • Commentaries should offer an opinion or advance an argument. Instead of summarizing an issue or describing a new capability, a good piece will offer recommendations, informed perspective, a clear call to action, or a roadmap for the future. SpaceNews’ readership includes high-profile leaders within the space community, so our readers may well have the authority to take action. Therefore, preference is given to submissions from authorities with standing, expertise or a unique experience related to the subject.
  • Authors should target roughly 800-1,000 words. We have found this to be a sweet spot for readers. While we have some flexibility, we will send articles that are thousands of words back for revision.
  • All articles must be written by humans. ChatGPT and other LLMs are easy to spot, error-prone and boring. We ask that you abstain from using AI and other shortcuts while writing your article.
  • All articles should include a headline and author bio. Ideally, headlines will be engaging and declarative, arguing the key point. Descriptive titles are better suited for academic journals. Author bios should be one sentence.
  • Conflicts of interest should be disclosed in the article and in your author bio. While we understand that authors are more likely to have opinions related to their industry or company, we ask for transparency upfront and a clear perspective that goes beyond self promotion. Opinion articles will need to clear a higher bar than simply calling on Congress to fund one’s particular industry, for example.

All opinion articles are unpaid, and accepted articles will be published behind the SpaceNews paywall. If you want to share your articles with anyone who doesn’t subscribe to the site, they can access a limited number of articles when they subscribe for free with their email. All SpaceNews articles should be exclusive; we will not publish articles that are already published or are being considered for publication elsewhere.

Note that the SpaceNews editorial department does not publish white papers, prospectuses or promotional material in the opinion sections. Subject matter summaries and thought leadership essays are not a good fit for our opinion section unless they offer a clear call to action or advance a specific perspective, barring clear conflicts of interest. We do, however, accept such materials for print and web as sponsored content placed through our advertising department, and we have a paid press release service called Stellar Dispatch.