  It is shown that there exist large classes of BPS vacua in heterotic M-theory
which have negative tension on the visible orbifold plane, positive tension on
the hidden plane and positive tension, physical five-branes in the bulk space.
Explicit examples of such vacua are presented. Furthermore, it is demonstrated
that the ratio, beta/|alpha|, of the bulk five-brane tension to the visible
plane tension can, for several large classes of such vacua, be made arbitrarily
small. Hence, it is straightforward to find vacua with the properties required
in the examples of the Ekpyrotic theory of cosmology - a visible brane with
negative tension and beta/|alpha| small. This contradicts recent claims in the
literature.
