Jet Propulsion Laboratory

**Who We Are** The Jet Propulsion Laboratory holds a unique place in the universe. We are a leader in robotic space exploration, sending rovers to Mars, probes into the farthest reaches of the solar system, and satellites to advance understanding of our home planet. The success of JPL’s first spacecraft, the Explorer I satellite, in 1958 helped lift America into the Space Age. Our spacecraft have flown to every planet in the solar system, the Sun, and into interstellar space in a quest to better understand the origins of the universe, and of life. Our missions honor the relentless pursuit of the seeker: Voyager, Curiosity, Cassini, Galileo. It was a camera on Voyager 1 that captured the pale blue dot of Earth from 3.7 billion miles away and corrective optics engineered by JPL that brought the Hubble Space Telescope into focus. JPL helped build and manages one of the four cameras aboard the James Webb Space Telescope. In fact, the image sensors used in modern digital cameras, including your smartphone’s, were developed at JPL, too. Closer to home, JPL spacecraft, science instruments, and airborne missions help humanity study and track climate change, manage natural resources, and respond to disasters. And the giant dish antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network – built and managed by JPL – send and receive data from nearly all spacecraft traveling beyond the Moon. What’s next? We’re working on missions to investigate the surface and interior of Venus and to study the ocean deep below the icy crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa. JPL is taking part in missions to map Earth’s surface and to chart minute movements of the planet’s ice and land-covered surfaces. Together with the European Space Agency, we plan to bring Martian rock samples back to Earth in the search for past signs of microscopic life on Mars, and those efforts will also help NASA prepare to send humans to Mars. From Earth to the solar system to the limits of our universe, we drive to the forefront of scientific discovery; we benefit humanity through our missions, innovations, and research, inviting people everywhere to imagine what is possible. Managed by Caltech, JPL is NASA’s only federally-funded research and development center.