Albon Redzepi was a Star Wars fan as a kid.
Now he’s president of a Rhode Island defense contractor that helped NASA’s Artemis II mission get off the ground.
“Star Wars is actually what got me into space travel and all this stuff outside of Earth,” Redzepi said. “It started there, and now I’m actively involved in the space project so that’s a really great feeling”
Watching the Orion spacecraft take off from the launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as an invited guest of NASA, he couldn’t help flashing back to Luke Skywalker. He truly felt the power of The Force.
“About 30 seconds after the launch, you could hear the noise and feel the vibrations hitting your body,” he said.
Those intense vibrations are exactly why work by Redzepi’s company, Dewetron, was so essential to the mission.
Dewetron manufactures high-tech measuring equipment. Their engineers’ expertise helped ensure that all the sensitive electronics packed into the Orion spacecraft remained functional and precisely calibrated despite the stresses of space travel.
All that gear faces G-forces many times the Earth’s gravity. It has to survive the volcanic tremors of a rocket launch, the icy temperatures of outer space, and the brutal heat of reentry.
The science and the safety of the mission depend on it.
During the research and development phase of the project, NASA engineers used Dewetron’s equipment to make sure all of the space tech could function perfectly for the entire journey.
Even a small miscalibration could change the trajectory of the rocket carrying human beings farther than they have ever traveled before – more than 250,000 miles from Earth.
Dewetron engineer Corey Clark describes the tests as the ultimate “washing machine test,” making sure all that shaking doesn’t affect the precision of the machinery inside.
The importance of that rigorous testing is underscored by the tragic memory of the space shuttle Challenger mission 40 years ago. The failure of one small piece of hardware – “O ring” gaskets that hardened due to unseasonably cold weather in Florida – led to tragic consequences for the seven member Challenger crew.
Clark saw the Artemis take off as an enlightening experience, helping the space program finally move past the Challenger tragedy and “on to brighter, better things.”
Dewetron also does work for the Department of Defense, presumably helping to calibrate some of the military hardware being used in the Middle East.
“We can’t talk about the work we do for the DoD,” Redzepi said. But he expressed happiness that the U.S. War in Iran recently entered a ceasefire.
NASA named the Artemis mission after the Greek Goddess of the Moon, twin sister of Apollo.
Redzepi hopes the Artemis story will usher in a new era for human space exploration. He views his company’s contribution to the mission as a point of pride and a high honor.
“You know a small company from a small state being part of such a large project, it’s a big privilege,” Redzepi said.
