Jovian-0

The Jovian-O crew

**Alejandro, Ewan, Ieuan, Caspar & Harvey with Kea 1, carrying their signed 'DAVE' payload.**

**Alejandro, Ewan, Ieuan, Caspar & Harvey with Kea 1, carrying their signed 'DAVE' payload.**

DAVE incorporates two small cameras: one to take images and videos of Earth, and a space-facing camera to look for space debris. This equipment was designed, made and tested by students.

This aimed to be the first mission to launch under the Joint Universities Programme for In-orbit Training, Education and Research, aka JUPITER, which involves students from the Universities of Surrey, Southampton and Portsmouth.

The Crew

Five students spent three weeks at the Etlaq Spaceport in Oman: Ieuan, Harvey, Caspar and Ewan from Surrey and Alejandro from Southampton.

During their adventure, the group formed a tight bond and met with many space industry professionals, building relationships and making valuable connections as they embark on their careers in space. Along the way, they encountered sandstorms, scorching temperatures and stunning landscape. 5am wake up calls, working through the night...the team poured their heart and soul into making the mission a success.

Team leader Ieuan Carney - a Surrey graduate in Electronic Engineering with Space Systems who is now doing a PhD at Surrey - kept a daily journal of the crew's activity, filled with fascinating insights into the reality of what it takes to get a rocket on the launchpad. So, it's over to you Ieuan...

Saturday 21 June: touchdown in Oman

We landed in Muscat, Oman's capital city, and can't believe the intensity of the heat - 45⁰C at its highest!

Sunday 22 June: the sandstorm

We had breakfast with some of the people from our launch provider in Muscat, who we bombarded with lots of questions. They very kindly invited us to their workshop so we could see some of the launch pad infrastructure and where they work. A great experience.

Then started the LONG journey south to Duqm - 571km of varying landscapes from mountainous, to desert, to scenes straight out of Star Wars. Finally we arrived at a sandstorm-stricken Duqm.

Monday 23 June: return of the dust

Our hotel breakfast of veggie curry, chapati, and masala omelette was spicier than we are used to, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

We had some time to relax and also went through our integration procedure documents, giving everyone some technical study to keep the engineering bug at bay.

Tuesday 24 June: our group grows by one

We met a student from Taiwan’s National Central University. Kevin is out here by himself, but he’s already become part of our group!

Unfortunately there’s a slip in the timeline but we should have news in the next day or two about the arrival of the rocket and when we can begin our integration process.

Wednesday 25 June: lift-off (of sorts)

Today has been an eventful day. There was steak for breakfast! I don’t think we will be able to adjust to the student lifestyle back in the UK...more importantly, our launch provider invited us on a tour of the Etlaq Spaceport.

The facilities are incredible, not least because they have only been erected in the last couple of months. It’s a real testament to the strength of the teams coming together to make this project a reality.

But the most exciting part of the day was yet to come, as we got the news to say the rocket is on its way. The team woohoo’d and celebrated at the thought of the engineering beginning.

Thursday 26 June: the calm before the (sand) storm

After breakfast in Duqm, we headed back to Etlaq. There we were issued with our hand-held radios and Spaceport t-shirts, which was quite a cool moment. We also spent time with Etlaq’s COO discussing what infrastructure and equipment is required to make a spaceport.

Caspar constructed his back up ground station which quenched some of the thirst for hands-on work, and meant we could demonstrate what kind of set up we would be using. Around 5pm we headed back to Duqm. The roads are tricky, so we’re avoiding driving in the dark. You never know when a camel/donkey/goat may jump out at you on the road!

Saturday 28 June: DAVE gets dirty

Today has been a great day! We left Duqm at 6:15am for Etlaq, so we could go through our procedures for the day. We finally got into the integration hangar, so we could start our rehearsals. We got through these carefully, calmly and confidently, exactly as we intended to.

But the really exciting thing today was that we were working only meters away from the first stage of the rocket. We got to be hands on with it, helping prep it, epoxying joints and finishing surfaces among other tasks.

As there was some extra space in camp, we even got to stay at the Spaceport for the night, working through the night, making new friends and connections. Morale is high and we are all enjoying ourselves!

Sunday 29 June: loctite, stock, and two smoking barrels

We started off in the integration warehouse for our final thread-locking of the satellite. We then worked with the rocket team, giving them a hand, gaining experience for ourselves, and also starting to talk about the integration of the deploy pod and rocket.

Ewan and Caspar soldered together some battery packs and made a tape joint over the interstage. The rocket also had its engines put on, so everything was starting to look more and more like the finished product. Very exciting times!

Kea 1, the launch vehicle for the students' DAVE payload, at the Etlaq Spaceport in Oman.

Monday 30 June: getting stuck in

Once we arrived on site, we did more fit checks of our deploy pod and realised we needed some extra foam in the rocket to help the integration. The launch provider was awesome enough to let us make this little bit of foam and trusted us to put it in the rocket. We also made a composite sandwich panel part for their cable guttering which was described as being "better than expected" from the rocket team. We’ll take it.

We cut the parts to size, fitted them to the rocket, and did a fit check with the deploy pod – it now fits like a glove. All of this work was great for learning about the different procedures for making different parts.

Tuesday 1 July: learning on the job

Once in the integration hangar, Caspar continued his work integrating the electronics onto the rocket. Myself, Ewan and Harvey found out the composite part we had made yesterday had been rejected, because we had been given the wrong mould. So the three of us got to work making a better one. The Spaceport team were very happy with the outcome, and seemed impressed with how quickly our composite skills had improved.

Wednesday 2 July: picture day

In the integration hangar we were greeted by the rocket, fully put together for picture day! It was incredible to see what the rocket would look like externally on launch day and it was fantastic. It made it all feel so real.

Friday 4 July: Abu Dhabi sleepover

After a quick hop to Abu Dhabi to renew our visas (all easy enough) we start to go nocturnal in the build up to launch. We would all like to say a big thank you to everyone back in the UK supporting us and cheering us on. Us in the Field Team do realise that we are representing the work done by everyone in the team and not just ourselves, and we are very proud to be able to do that.

Sunday 6 July: Nocturnal beings

Yesterday was mainly spent helping out with the rocket and launch pad preparations, wiring the pad CCTV, setting up the pad power and more.

After, the rocket team rehearsed their first roll out to the pad so we got to watch the rocket leave the integration hangar to the pad for the first time. It was a great feeling and I can’t begin to imagine what it must have felt like for the team from Stellar Kinetics.

Monday 7 July: wet dress take 1

The bulk of the work for the past 24 hours has been to set up our ground station and secure a desk in mission control. We now have a great set up where we can be in amongst the action come launch day. We are also now completely integrated into the rocket in our launch trim.

We got a great insight into their wet dress rehearsal, and all of the procedures the rocket team were running once the rocket went vertical. It was great to see and hear them running through the procedures and to get such an up close view of these for a full sized rocket.

Tuesday 8 July: wet dress take 2

Earlier, Caspar and I headed off down to the pad to help out with some cable laying. It was so eerie down at the pad, but luckily we didn't need to be down there for long. The general feel here at the moment is that tonight is the night.

Wednesday 9 July, 02:35, launch update: scrubbed

The launch has been scrubbed for today. We try again tomorrow!

Wednesday 9 July, 21:31, launch update 2: scrubbed again

This morning we had a message come through that the launch opportunity today was to be scrubbed again.

Friday 11 July: the end

Yesterday we left Etlaq Spaceport for the final time. It was a bittersweet moment as we said goodbye to the people we’ve worked alongside for the last couple of weeks. Everyone had very nice things to say about us which was great to hear. It is good to know that we really put our best foot forward.

This trip has truly been once in a lifetime for all of us, and very much life changing. We are all eternally grateful for this opportunity, and although we may not get to see the rocket launch, we gave it our best effort to make sure we did.

Missing the launch doesn't take away from how awesome this trip and all of our experiences have been.

مع السلامة، (with peace)

Ieuan.

Kea 1 on the launchpad at the Etlaq Spaceport, Oman.

Mission debrief

The launch of Kea 1 was halted during final preparations due to a technical issue with onboard actuators. Despite the mission concluding without ignition, the Times of Oman marked the launch attempt as a major operational success for Etlaq Spaceport.

“Although the payload didn’t get to deploy, it’s something we were prepared for because we know space projects often have set-backs in the early stages. We’re still so proud of what we’ve done, developing a payload and fitting it onto a rocket.”
Ieuan Carney, speaking to the Times of Oman

In October 2025, the Jovian-O team's accomplishments were recognised by winning the 2025 Sir Arthur Clarke Award for Space Achievement by a Student Team, awarded by the British Interplanetary Society.

The team are awaiting confirmation on their next scheduled payload launch attempt.