JPL traces its beginnings to 1936 in the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT) when the first set of rocket experiments were carried out in the Arroyo Seco. History The 'Suicide Squad' of (left to right) Rudolph Schott, Apollo Milton Olin Smith, Frank Malina, Ed Forman and Jack Parsons testing their first liquid-fueled rocket engine. JPL's Space Flight Operations Facility and Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator are designated National Historic Landmarks.

It is also responsible for managing the JPL Small-Body Database, and provides physical data and lists of publications for all known small Solar System bodies. It is also responsible for operating the NASA Deep Space Network.Īmong the laboratory's major active projects are the Mars 2020 mission, which includes the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity Mars helicopter the Mars Science Laboratory mission, including the Curiosity rover the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter the Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter the SMAP satellite for earth surface soil moisture monitoring the NuSTAR X-ray telescope and the forthcoming Psyche asteroid orbiter. The laboratory's primary function is the construction and operation of planetary robotic spacecraft, though it also conducts Earth-orbit and astronomy missions. Founded in 1936 by Caltech researchers, the laboratory is now owned and sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and administered and managed by the California Institute of Technology. Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL) is a federally funded research and development center in Pasadena, California, United States. Jet Propulsion Laboratory (the United States) Show map of the United States

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