Hypervelocity usually occurs during meteor showers and deep space reentries, as carried out during the Zond, Apollo and Luna programs. Given the intrinsic unpredictability of the timing and trajectories of meteors, space capsules are prime data gathering opportunities for the study of thermal protection materials at hypervelocity (in this context, hypervelocity is defined as greater than escape velocity). Given the rarity of such observation opportunities since the 1970s, the Genesis and Stardust Sample Return Capsule (SRC) reentries as well as the recent Hayabusa SRC reentry have spawned observation campaigns, most notably at NASA Ames Research Center.