First of two MEIT-integrated REBR-2 payloads successfully completes mission

Officials at MEI Technologies, Inc. (MEIT), a nationwide technology company, celebrate the successful launch of the Reentry Breakup Recorder-2 (REBR-2) payload designed to gather information for a greater understanding of spacecraft design safety.

Launched on July 21, 2012, the REBR-2 is designed to measure a variety of parameters as the instrument reenters the Earth’s atmosphere. Measurements taken by REBR-2 during reentry and transmitted to researchers just prior to impact will be crucial in understanding how spacecraft breakup and disintegrate upon reentry and will provide knowledge for spacecraft designers to ensure the safety of the general public when spacecraft reach their end of life.

The DHEP effort was managed through the DoD Space Test Program, sponsored by SMC/XR and built by the Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo. The MEIT DoD Human Exploration Payload (DHEP) team performed the payload integration activities for the REBR-2 payload onto JAXA’s HTV-3 spacecraft.  The HTV-3 was launched by an H-IIB rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center and successfully berthed to the ISS on July 27, 2012. 

“Integrating payloads at an average of over one launch per month since MEIT’s inception twenty years ago to customers that include the DoD, NASA and multiple universities, REBR-2 is our latest success,” states MEIT DHEP program manager Howard Jones. “I am very proud of what our team has accomplished to date and what this highly experienced team can continue to deliver to our nation’s programs and citizens.”

MEIT’s Space Access Services provides spaceflight opportunities for small payloads requiring access to space. 

Click here for more information on MEIT’s Space Access Services, or visit www.MEITechinc.com/capabilities/payload.asp.