Student rocket team celebrates success at Cardiff Uni's Start-Up Awards
30 April 2025
Cardiff University’s newly formed student rocket team, Cardiff Rocket Lab (CRL), has made a powerful debut at this year’s Start-Up Awards evening, taking home second place in the Inspired Engineer Award and a £1,000 prize.
Second-year mechanical engineering students Oscar Mabon and Joel Cartwright represented the team at the Cardiff University event, gaining recognition for their work on CRL’s first major propulsion project — a 500N hybrid rocket engine nicknamed Bowser. Their success marks a major milestone for CRL, a student-run initiative that is quickly becoming a hub for rocket enthusiasts on campus.
We’re thrilled to have received this award, it’s a huge boost for the whole team. Our rocket Bowser has been an incredible hands-on experience, and we’re excited to put it to the test at the national Race2Space Propulsion Competition this July.
Founded by second year students Yusif Al-Gurair (astrophysics) and Thomas Orford-Morgan (physics), the CRL lab was inspired during a physics and astronomy summer school in Vietnam. Motivated by a shared desire to bring "fun and obsession" into their academic lives, the pair set out to build something extraordinary — and settled on rockets.
A pivotal moment came in October 2024, when Yusif attended a space conference in Glasgow and connected with Jack Tuft, a PhD student and propulsion engineer at Orbex. Tuft, who helped launch the Glasgow University rocket team, has since become a key mentor to CRL.
CRL is based in the university’s engineering building and meets twice a week. The lab is split into two teams: the Propulsion Team, consisting of Oscar, Joel, and Yusif, focuses on engine design and development; while the Rocketry Team, led by Thomas and Physics student Erin Halton, is building a 2km transonic rocket for the Mach-25 competition hosted by EXO Events.
Plans for next academic year include the design of a 2KN liquid bipropellant engine with regenerative cooling and the regular launch of transonic and supersonic rockets.
Next year, we’ll also be formally opening CRL to the wider university community. We want as many engineering and physics students as possible to get involved and have fun. We’re really pleased with how successful the Cardiff Rocket Lab has been so far!