JPL

JPL, or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center focused on robotic space missions. Based in Pasadena, California, it is managed by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) under contract with NASA.

Founded in 1939 as part of Caltech's Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory, JPL began as a center for rocket propulsion studies. It adopted the Jet Propulsion Laboratory name in the 1950s, and with the creation of NASA in 1958 it became NASA's primary center for unmanned interplanetary missions. Since then, JPL has designed, built, and operated numerous spacecraft and instruments and has contributed to space science across the solar system.

Notable missions include the Voyager probes, which explored the outer planets and continue to return data from interstellar space; Mars Pathfinder and the Sojourner rover; the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity; the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity; the Mars 2020 mission with Perseverance and the Ingenuity helicopter; the InSight lander; the Juno mission to Jupiter; and Cassini–Huygens to Saturn.

JPL's capabilities encompass spacecraft engineering and integration, mission operations, and science data analysis, as well as technology development and flight dynamics. It operates the NASA Deep Space Network communications facilities used to communicate with interplanetary spacecraft, leveraging a global network of antennas in locations including California, Spain, and Australia.

The laboratory collaborates with NASA centers, universities, international partners, and industry on current and future missions, contributing to both planetary exploration and Earth science through sophisticated robotics and instrumentation.