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1936 Rocket Motor Firing leads to Formation of JPL

Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory, Caltech (CALCIT) students and coworkers fired their first liquid, propellant rocket motor on October 31, 1936. This test led to creation of the CALCIT Rocket Research Project, formally sponsored by the U.S. Government since 1939, and subsequently established as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the present location, north of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.