Space correspondent
Space desk
Liora Hale is The Standard's space correspondent. Hale covers astronomy, launch windows and the work of putting hardware into orbit.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy lifted NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Launch Complex 39A at 7:26 a.m. Eastern on Sunday, 30 August. The observatory is on a three-month cruise of about 1.5 million kilometres to a halo orbit around Sun-Earth L2.
Liora Hale · 31 Aug 2026
NASA’s 17 August FALCON demo on the Starling CubeSat swarm matched star-tracker sightings to a ~20,000-object catalog, fixed its own orbit, and refined more than 200 others in three days. EraDrive’s Era-Core flew the software.
Liora Hale · 30 Aug 2026
NASA and SpaceX are targeting 7:26 a.m. Eastern Sunday from 39A. The readiness date was May 2027. The fairing already says Roman.
Liora Hale · 30 Aug 2026
Cheap sensors, dark-ish suburbs, and the unfashionable joy of looking up. Sample copy from the Space desk.
Liora Hale · 25 Aug 2026
A sample exploration essay: public agencies, commercial landers, and a destination that still deserves a headline.
Liora Hale · 24 Aug 2026
Cadence as culture. A sample dispatch on why flying often makes the night less theoretical.
Liora Hale · 23 Aug 2026