SpaceX's Starship megarocket makes the 'softest splashdown' ever after launching next-gen Starlink satellites in Flight 13 test (video)

<p>Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com based out of our New York City office and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment.

He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. In October 2022, <a href="https://www.

nscfl.org/kolcum-award/" target="_blank">Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award</a> for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. In June 2025, the National Space Society awarded him the Space Pioneer Award for Excellence in Mass Media at the International Space Development Conference in Orlando, Florida.

</p><p>Hailing from Stockton, California (where he attended the same high school as NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez), Tariq studied print journalism and astronomy at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, earning a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1999 along with a minor in astronomy. He then served as a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra and Fullerton in Orange County for the Our Times sections. </p><p>In 2000, Tariq became the city reporter for the Huntington Beach Independent, a weekly publication of the Los Angeles Times, covering local politics and events, crime, business and environmental issues.

He left the Los Angeles Times in 2001 to study science journalism at New York University, where he earned a master's degree in 2002 from NYU's Science and Environmental Reporting Program (now the Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program) under the direction of space reporter William Burrows.</p><p>Tariq first joined Space.com as an intern in September 2001 while also serving as a research assistant for nutrition writer Gary Taubes and writing freelance projects, where his work appeared in The Scientist and Laboratory Equipment Magazine.

He became a full-time reporter covering