page_title: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
section_title: Employees
hierarchical_section_title: Jet Propulsion Laboratory / Employees
caption_attribution_description: English: A 1960s advert for working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL) which ran in Scientific American
context_page_description: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the city of La Cañada Flintridge with a Pasadena mailing address, within the state of California, United States.
  Founded in the 1930s, JPL is currently owned by NASA and managed by the nearby California Institute of Technology for NASA. The laboratory's primary function is the construction and operation of planetary robotic spacecraft, though it also conducts Earth-orbit and astronomy missions. It is also responsible for operating NASA's Deep Space Network.
  Among the laboratory's major active projects are the Mars Science Laboratory mission, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter, the NuSTAR X-ray telescope, the SMAP satellite for earth surface soil moisture monitoring, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. It is also responsible for managing the JPL Small-Body Database, and provides physical data and lists of publications for all known small Solar System bodies.
  JPL's Space Flight Operations Facility and Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator are designated National Historic Landmarks.
context_section_description: There are approximately 6,000 full-time Caltech employees, and typically a few thousand additional contractors working on any given day. NASA also has a resident office at the facility staffed by federal managers who oversee JPL's activities and work for NASA. There are also some Caltech graduate students, college student interns and co-op students.
caption: A 1960s advert reads: "When you were a kid, science fiction gave you a sense of wonder. Now you feel the same just by going to work."
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