Agency name | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
---|---|
Logo | NASA logo.svg |
Logo width | 100px |
Seal | Jet Propulsion Laboratory logo.svg |
Seal width | 120px |
Picture | Site du JPL en Californie.jpg |
Picture width | 220px |
Picture caption | Aerial view of JPL in La Cañada Flintridge, California |
Formed | 1936 |
Parent agency | managed for NASA by Caltech |
Jurisdiction | U.S. federal government |
Headquarters | Pasadena, California |
Coordinates | |
Employees | > 5,000 |
Chief1 name | Charles Elachi |
Chief1 position | Director |
Child1 agency | JPL Science Division |
Website | JPL home page |
Map width | 180px |
Map caption | }} |
Among the Laboratory's current projects are the Cassini–Huygens mission to Saturn, the Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity), the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Dawn mission to Ceres and Vesta, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.
JPL's Space Flight Operations Facility and Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator are designated National Historic Landmarks.
During JPL's Army years, the Laboratory developed two deployed weapon systems, the MGM-5 Corporal and MGM-29 Sergeant intermediate range ballistic missiles. It also developed a number of other weapons system prototypes, such as the Loki anti-aircraft missile system, and the forerunner of the Aerobee sounding rocket. At various times, it carried out rocket testing at the White Sands Proving Ground, Edwards Air Force Base, and Goldstone, California. A lunar lander was also developed in 1938-39 which influenced design of the Apollo Lunar Module in the 1960s.
In 1954, JPL teamed up with Wernher von Braun’s rocketeers at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency’s Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, to propose orbiting a satellite during the International Geophysical Year. The team lost that proposal to Project Vanguard, and instead embarked on a classified project to demonstrate ablative re-entry technology using a Jupiter-C rocket. They carried out three successful sub-orbital flights in 1956 and 1957. Using a spare Jupiter-C, the two organizations then launched America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, on February 1, 1958.
JPL was transferred to NASA after it was founded in October 1958, becoming the agency’s primary planetary spacecraft center. JPL engineers designed and operated Ranger and Surveyor missions to the Moon that prepared the way for Apollo. JPL also led the way in interplanetary exploration with the Mariner missions to Venus, Mars, and Mercury.
JPL was early to offer employment opportunities to women mathematicians. In the 1940s and 1950s, using mechanical calculators, women in an all-female computations group performed trajectory calculations. In 1961, JPL hired their first woman engineer to work along side male engineers as part of the Ranger and Mariner mission tracking teams.
JPL has been recognized four times by the Space Foundation: with the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award, which is given annually to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to public awareness of space programs, in 1998; and with the John L. "Jack" Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration on three occasions – in 2009 (as part of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Team), 2006 and 2005.
On August 30, 2007, a group of JPL employees filed suit in federal court against NASA, Caltech, and the Department of Commerce, claiming their Constitutional rights were being violated by new, overly invasive background investigations. 97% of JPL employees were classified at the low-risk level and would be subjected to the same clearance procedures as those obtaining moderate/high risk clearance. Under HSPD12 and FIPS 201, investigators have the right to obtain any information on employees, which includes questioning acquaintances on the status of the employee's mental, emotional, and financial stability. Additionally, if employees depart JPL before the end of the two year validity of the background check, no investigation ability gets terminated; former employees can still be legally monitored.
Employees were told that if they did not sign an unlimited waiver of privacy, they would be deemed to have "voluntarily resigned". The rebadging rules were designed to make JPL compliant with FIPS 201. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found the process violated the employees' privacy rights and has issued a preliminary injunction. NASA appealed and the US Supreme Court granted certiorari on March 8, 2010. On January 19, 2011, the Supreme Court overturned the Ninth Circuit decision, ruling that the background checks did not violate any constitutional privacy right that the employees may have had.
* Category:Government agencies established in 1930 Category:Space centres Category:Superfund sites Category:Buildings and structures in Pasadena, California
bn:জেট প্রপালশন ল্যাবরেটরি zh-min-nan:Phùn-siā Chhui-chìn Si̍t-giām-sek bs:Laboratorija za mlazni pogon bg:Лаборатория за реактивно движение cs:Jet Propulsion Laboratory da:Jet Propulsion Laboratory de:Jet Propulsion Laboratory es:Laboratorio de Propulsión a Chorro eo:Jet Propulsion Laboratory fa:آزمایشگاه پیشرانه جت fr:Jet Propulsion Laboratory ko:제트 추진 연구소 id:Jet Propulsion Laboratory it:Jet Propulsion Laboratory he:JPL la:Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Californiense Institutum Technologiae) lv:Reaktīvās kustības laboratorija lt:Reaktyvinio judėjimo laboratorija hu:Jet Propulsion Laboratory mk:Лабораторија за реактивен погон nl:Jet Propulsion Laboratory ja:ジェット推進研究所 pl:Jet Propulsion Laboratory pt:Jet Propulsion Laboratory ru:Лаборатория реактивного движения simple:Jet Propulsion Laboratory sk:Laboratórium prúdového pohonu sl:Laboratorij za reaktivni pogon fi:Jet Propulsion Laboratory sv:Jet Propulsion Laboratory zh:喷气推进实验室This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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