{"id":583264,"date":"2026-10-22T04:35:56","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T18:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?p=1058236"},"modified":"2026-10-22T04:35:56","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T18:35:56","slug":"nasa-jpl-looks-to-next-90-years-of-innovation-exploration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=583264","title":{"rendered":"NASA JPL Looks to Next 90 Years of Innovation, Exploration"},"content":{"rendered":"
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5 min read<\/p>\n

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"A<\/a><\/figure>
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Clockwise from top: Caltech graduate students and friends carry out their first rocket firing on Halloween, 1936, in a dry riverbed along which JPL would rise. Their work helped make possible missions such as Perseverance and Europa Clipper as well as the future SkyFall and MoonFall missions. <\/div>\n
NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Interstellar probes. Lunar drones. Helicopters on Mars.<\/p>\n

When a group of Caltech graduate students and enthusiasts began conducting rocket-propulsion tests in Pasadena\u2019s Arroyo Seco on Oct. 31, 1936, they had no idea that their work marked the inception of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Ninety years later, the lab, now managed by Caltech for NASA, isn\u2019t only celebrating the long line of historic firsts accomplished here; it\u2019s paving the way for many to come.<\/p>\n

Initially a contractor for the U.S. Army, JPL launched America\u2019s first satellite, Explorer 1<\/a> in 1958. But rather than just orbiting Earth like the Soviet Union\u2019s Sputnik, Explorer 1 became the first spacecraft to conduct science, thanks to an onboard Geiger counter that discovered the protective radiation belts encircling Earth.<\/p>\n

The lab joined part of the newly formed NASA that same year. Within six years, in 1964, JPL sent the first U.S. mission to the Moon, Ranger 7<\/a>. It also went on to lead the first planetary flyby, the first probe to visit all four gas giants, the first infrared telescope, the first rovers to roll on Mars, and the first rotorcraft to fly there, among many other historic milestones.<\/p>\n

More firsts are on the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the course of 90 years, JPL\u2019s first-of-a-kind missions have transformed our understanding of the universe and our place in it,\u201d said Dave Gallagher, JPL\u2019s director since 2025. In 1992, only a couple years after he started as an engineer at the lab, Gallagher led the JPL team that built and tested the Wide-Field and Planetary 2 Camera<\/a> for NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope, which delivered many of the mission\u2019s most iconic images. \u201cWe stand on an extraordinary foundation, and we\u2019re ready to push the boundaries with exciting new missions so that future generations can go even further.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aiming for a 2028 launch, the JPL-managed SkyFall<\/a> mission will deploy three helicopters mid-descent over Mars to search to map hidden ice deposits and analyze weather patterns. Helping advance NASA\u2019s Moon Base, JPL is developing MoonFall<\/a>, a mission that will land a group of large propulsive drones at the lunar South Pole that same year. Set for a 2027 launch, SunRISE<\/a> (Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment) features six toaster-oven-size satellites that will fly in formation to create a miles-wide radio antenna dish in order to study the Sun\u2019s activity. What it reveals could help make space exploration safer for humans.<\/p>\n

Protecting humanity is also the goal of the asteroid-hunting NEO Surveyor<\/a> (Near-Earth Object Surveyor) mission, which, managed by JPL, will hunt for potentially hazardous space rocks that other telescopes can\u2019t find. Once an object is spotted, NASA can offer a threat assessment and plan accordingly.<\/p>\n

Closer to home, the same lab that launched the first oceanographic satellite in 1978 is at work on several missions that will offer a deeper reading of Earth\u2019s vital signs. Where one mission will monitor the movement of water by measuring slight changes in gravity, another will study how powerful tropical convective storms form. A third will detail how different types of air pollution affect human health.<\/p>\n

They add to a fleet of other Earth missions and projects JPL helps lead, including NISAR<\/a> (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) a joint mission with the Indian Space Research Organisation that can pinpoint how Earth\u2019s surface changes in relation to natural disasters. Another, one of a series of instruments called AVIRIS (Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer), can even detect rare Earth elements<\/a> critical to modern technology.<\/p>\n

Flown on airplanes, the AVIRIS sensors were developed at JPL\u2019s Microdevices Laboratory<\/a>, which invented the \u201ccamera on a chip\u201d technology that enables cellphones to take pictures. It\u2019s also where the detectors are being developed for PRIMA<\/a> (PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics), a newly announced NASA mission that will strengthen humanity\u2019s understanding of the universe by studying radiant energy visible only in the far-infrared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing together the very best of scientific brilliance and engineering ingenuity from across Caltech and JPL continues to advance NASA\u2019s priorities and empower America\u2019s space leadership,\u201d said Caltech\u2019s president Ray Jayawardhana, who is also a professor of astronomy. \u201cI can only imagine what those Caltech students experimenting with rockets in a little patch of dry riverbed would think if they could to see what Caltech and JPL have accomplished since, and where we\u2019re headed next. Ninety years later, the same spirit of daring is still opening new frontiers and inspiring humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 90th anniversary comes just a few weeks before another milestone, when on Nov. 18 Voyager 1 reaches a full light-day<\/a> \u2014 the distance light will travel in 24 hours, which is some 16 billion miles, or 26 billion kilometers \u2014 from Earth. Ed Stone<\/a> led the mission for 50 years, serving as JPL\u2019s director for 10 of them. Stone died in 2024, but the Voyagers are continuing on their journey deeper into interstellar space, a place no other spacecraft have ventured. Turning 50 next year, they rely on NASA\u2019s Deep Space Network<\/a> (developed by JPL in the Apollo era) to receive commands and send back science data. Stone said that with both Voyagers exploring regions never before visited, \u201cevery day is a day of discovery.\u201d The same could be said for JPL.<\/p>\n

-end-<\/p>\n

Media contact<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matthew Segal
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-8307
matthew.j.segal@jpl.nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n

2026-073<\/p>\n

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