Heathcoat Fabrics, a textiles company in Devon is responsible for creating a hi-tech fabric that allowed NASA’s latest rover to land safely on Mars.
The Perseverance Rover required a special canopy to slow the spacecraft as it was dropped on to the planet’s surface. The lightweight material was produced in a factory in Tiverton, before being sewn together by engineers in the US. Heathcoat Fabrics said it was “very, very proud of the achievement”. Peter Hill, director of the company’s woven fabric department, said the successful landing had been a culmination of “15 years’ hard work”.
