When a group of Caltech graduate students, researchers, and rocket enthusiasts began conducting experimental rocket-propulsion tests in Pasadena's Arroyo Seco on October 31, 1936, they had no idea that their work marked the inception of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Now, 90 years later, the Lab, which has been continuously managed by Caltech for NASA since the agency was itself established in 1958, is celebrating its legacy of sci-fi-like feats—from the exploration of the farthest reaches of our solar system and into interstellar space to the detection of worlds beyond our solar system. Not content to rest on those impressive laurels, JPL and Caltech are looking ahead to the next near-century of transformative innovation, discovery, and exploration.
In its initial role as a contractor for the U.S. Army, the Lab, under Caltech's management, launched America's first satellite, Explorer 1, on January 31, 1958. But rather than just orbiting Earth like the Soviet Union's Sputnik had a few months earlier, Explorer 1 conducted science; Its onboard Geiger counter discovered the protective radiation belts that encircle Earth. Indeed, even as JPL has served and advanced national security interests, cutting-edge science and engineering has always been at the core of its efforts.
"Bringing together the very best of scientific brilliance and engineering ingenuity from across Caltech and JPL, we continue to advance NASA's priorities and empower America's space leadership," says Caltech President Ray Jayawardhana, Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor of astronomy. "I can only imagine what those Caltech students experimenting with rockets on a dry riverbed would think if they could see what Caltech and JPL have accomplished since, and where we're headed next. Ninety years later, the same spirit of daring is still opening new frontiers and inspiring humanity."
The success of Explorer 1 led to the formation of NASA by the end of 1958. JPL was quickly brought under the auspices of the agency, still managed by Caltech, as NASA's only Federally Funded Research and Development Center.
Within the next four years, JPL had sent the first U.S. mission to the Moon, Ranger 4. The Lab was also responsible for the first planetary flyby on December 14, 1962, when Mariner 2 zoomed past Venus; the first probe (Voyager 2) to visit all four gas giants; the first infrared telescope (the Infrared Astronomical Satellite); the first rover to roll on Mars (Sojourner); and the first rotorcraft (the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter) to fly there, among many other achievements.
More firsts are on the way.
"Over the course of 90 years, JPL's first-of-a-kind missions have transformed our understanding of the universe and our place in it," says Dave Gallagher, a Caltech vice president and director of JPL. In 1992, only a couple of years after starting as an engineer at the Lab, Gallagher led the JPL team that built and tested the Wide-Field and Planetary 2 Camera for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, delivering many of the mission's most iconic images. "We stand on an extraordinary foundation, and we're ready to push the boundaries with exciting new missions so that future generations can go even farther."
Those new endeavors include the JPL-managed SkyFall mission, scheduled for launch in 2028. SkyFall will deploy three helicopters mid-descent over Mars to search for subsurface ice and survey the landscape. Helping advance NASA's Moon Base, JPL is developing MoonFall, a mission that will land a group of large propulsive drones at the lunar South Pole. Meanwhile, SunRISE (the Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment), set for launch in 2027, features six toaster-size satellites that will fly in formation to create a miles-wide radio antenna dish that will study the Sun's activity. What it reveals could help make space exploration safer for humans.
Protecting humanity is also the goal of the JPL-managed asteroid-hunting NEO Surveyor (Near Earth Object Surveyor) mission, which will hunt for potentially hazardous space rocks that other telescopes can't find. Once they are spotted, NASA can offer a threat assessment and plan accordingly.
Closer to home, JPL—which launched the first oceanographic satellite, Seasat, in 1978—is at work on several missions that will offer a deeper reading of Earth's vital signs. One mission will track the movement of water, while another will study how powerful tropical storms form. A third will track fine airborne pollution that can enter the human bloodstream.
They add to a fleet of other Earth missions and projects that JPL helps lead, including NISAR, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite, which can observe how Earth's surface changes in relation to natural disasters.
Another, the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer, or AVIRIS, can help detect rare Earth elements critical to modern technology. Flown on airplanes, AVIRIS was developed at JPL's Microdevices Laboratory (MDL) which created the CMOS "camera on a chip" technology that enables cellphones to take pictures. MDL is also developing the detectors for PRIMA (PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics), a newly announced NASA mission that will strengthen humanity's understanding of the universe by studying radiant energy that is visible only in far-infrared wavelengths.
The 90th anniversary comes just a few weeks before another milestone on November 18, when Voyager 2's twin, Voyager 1, reaches a full "light-day" from Earth; a light-day is the distance light travels in 24 hours—approximately 16 billion miles, or 26 billion kilometers. The late Caltech professor Edward C. Stone, who served as JPL director from 1991 to 2001, led the Voyager mission for 40 years. Both Voyagers—each now in interstellar space—will celebrate their 50th "launch-day" anniversaries next year. They rely on NASA's Deep Space Network (developed by JPL in the Apollo era) to receive commands and send back science data. Stone once said that with both Voyagers exploring regions never before visited, "every day is a day of discovery." The same could be said for Caltech JPL.