I’m Anthony Colangelo.

Dr. John Charles spent nearly 33 years at NASA—most recently as Chief Scientist of the Human Research Program—working on human spaceflight through Shuttle, Mir, ISS, and beyond. He lead missions such as STS-95 (John Glenn’s Shuttle flight), STS-107, and the Twins Study with Scott and Mark Kelly. He retired from NASA in February 2018 and is now the Scientist in Resident at Space Center Houston. We talk about his career, the human spaceflight issues he worked and solved in his time at NASA, and the things that need to be solved for the exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Kate Howells of the Planetary Society joins Jake and Anthony to talk all things Canadian space policy.

Kate Howells of the Planetary Society joins Jake and Anthony to talk all things Canadian space policy.

Kate Howells of the Planetary Society joins Jake and Anthony to talk all things Canadian space policy.

Is a U.S. Space Force an inevitable step to protecting satellites and commercial space activities, or just an expensive exercise in shuffling Pentagon bureaucracies? Military and aerospace expert Anthony Colangelo joins Heaton to sort things out.

Last week, the US Air Force announced and expounded on the Rapid Agile Launch Initiative. Along with the new initiative, the new era of small launch is finally here, so it’s worth discussing a bit.

This month we talk EM-1, Moon by 2024, the commercialization of LEO, and more.

The National Space Council met this week and Vice President Pence announced the administration’s intentions to see humans land on the moon by 2024. I break down my thoughts and observations coming out of the meeting.

Caleb Henry of SpaceNews joins me live in studio to talk about his trip to Kourou for the first OneWeb launch, more affordable antennas, the current spectrum wars, and more from the world of satellites.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 37 executive producers—Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Brad, Ryan, Jamison, Nadim, Peter, Donald, Lee, Jasper, Chris, Warren, Bob, Russell, John, Moritz, Joel, Jan, David, Grant, Mike, David, Mints, Joonas, Robb, Tim Dodd the Everyday Astronaut, Frank, Rui, Julian, and six anonymous—and 230 other supporters on Patreon.

• Caleb Henry (@CHenry_SN) | Twitter
• Caleb Henry, Author at SpaceNews.com
• OneWeb's first six satellites in orbit following Soyuz launch - SpaceNews.com
• Caleb Henry on Twitter: “Just realized Twitter clipped the video BEFORE you can see Soyuz. Here is the actual video.”
• Average revenue per user (ARPU)
• Wyler claims breakthrough in low-cost antenna for OneWeb, other satellite systems - SpaceNews.com
• C-Band Alliance plan would require 5G networks to pay for eight new satellites - SpaceNews.com
• 5G trumps weather in spectrum debate - SpaceNews.com
• Satellite antenna companies divided on near-term feasibility of cheap flat panels - SpaceNews.com
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Eric Berger of Ars Technica joins me to talk about the latest in SLS Hot Drama: the 2020 budget request and a Bridenstine appearance in the Senate that might just go down in history. This week, NASA has proposed flying the three prime missions of SLS on commercial vehicles, setting the stage for an interesting few months of politics and engineering, and introducing some serious questions about the future of SLS.