Celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory invites the public to its campus at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California for an open-house event, Explore JPL. On Oct. 10 and 11, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. PDT, visitors will get the chance to visit JPL’s most iconic facilities and explore four thematic areas: Missions That Changed the World, Moon to Mars, In Flight, and Makerspace.
Tickets are free but very limited and have gone quickly for past Explore JPL events. They will be available on the Explore JPL webpage at 9 a.m. PDT Saturday, Aug. 29, and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, with a maximum of five tickets per requestor. Orders for more than five tickets may be subject to cancellation. Tickets will be provided for specific time slots and must be reserved for specific names. Attendees will not be admitted to JPL before the designated time printed on their ticket.
A division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL traces its origins to rocket-propulsion development in 1936. By 1958, the lab had built and helped launch America’s first satellite, Explorer 1. That same year, Congress established NASA, and JPL became a part of the agency. Since then, JPL has managed such historic missions as Voyager, Galileo, Cassini, the Mars Exploration Rover program, the Perseverance Mars rover, Europa Clipper, and many more.
Among other highlights, Explore JPL guests will get to:
- Visit JPL’s legendary Space Flight Operations Facility, a National Historic Landmark where engineers send commands and receive data from spacecraft billions of miles away.
- Discover the Spacecraft Assembly Facility and JPL Machine Shop, where precision spacecraft components are crafted.
- See the latest cutting-edge innovations in robotics research, from autonomous lunar rovers to search-and-rescue robots.
- Get up close with full-scale models of the Perseverance Mars rover, Voyager, and Galileo.
- Step inside the Microdevices Laboratory to see how miniature technologies developed there are shaping the future of space exploration and Earth science.
To attend Explore JPL, visitors must have their tickets in hand and anyone age 18 or over must show government-issued identification. Tickets are not transferable and cannot be sold. Children under age 2 do not require a ticket, but experiences at the event are not intended for very young guests.
Visitors may not bring these items to JPL: weapons or explosives of any kind, incendiary devices, glass containers, alcohol, cannabis or illegal drugs, pets (except certified service animals), banners or signs, flags, boom boxes, air horns, musical instruments, and professional camera equipment with detachable telephoto lenses. Use of laser pointers or whistles is not allowed. No bags, backpacks, or hard-sided coolers are permitted, either, except small purses and diaper bags. Drones are not allowed to fly over JPL under any circumstances. Skates, skateboards, scooters, Segways, and bicycles are not permitted inside the event, as the venues are crowded with pedestrians.
Vehicles entering JPL property are subject to inspection. Parking is free.
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To get a virtual tour of JPL, visit: