City’s small enterprise supplies to UAE’s rover parts

CHENNAI: When Rashid Rover “the first-ever rover of United Arab Emirates” put its legs on the surface of the moon in a matter of hours after emerging from the chest of Hakuto-R, the Japan-made lander.

Onboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket that took off from Florida, USA on December 11, it will mark the fruitful completion of a two-year long arduous efforts of ST Advanced Composites (STAC), a Chennai MSME of innovative composite parts that was entrusted with the task of the manufacturing and supply of the rover’s structural parts.

The rover’s Chennai connection should also lift the spirit of India’s Make in India movement in the defence and aerospace industry, and the hopes of the country becoming a global manufacturing hub for aerospace products in near future.