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The Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Night

Managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the lead U.S. center for robotic exploration of the solar system. JPL spacecraft have visited all known planets except Pluto (a Pluto mission is currently under study for the early part of the next decade). In addition to its work for NASA, JPL conducts tasks for a variety of other federal agencies.

JPL's main 72-hectare (177-acre) site is at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, north of Pasadena, California, 19 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Los Angeles. In addition, JPL manages the worldwide Deep Space Network, which communicates with spacecraft and conducts scientific investigations from its complexes in California's Mojave Desert near Goldstone; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia.