NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will open its campus to the public on October 10 and 11, celebrating its 90th anniversary with the Explore JPL open house. The event runs daily from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. PDT at the facility located at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California.
Visitors will gain access to some of JPL’s most iconic test facilities and mission control rooms. The campus will be organized into four thematic areas: “Missions That Changed the World,” “Moon to Mars,” and two others, offering a glimpse into the laboratory’s past, present, and future space exploration work.
The event provides a rare opportunity to see spacecraft mockups, speak with engineers and scientists, and tour areas usually closed to the public. JPL spokespeople emphasized the hands-on nature of the experience, with interactive exhibits and demonstrations planned across the two-day event.
Explore JPL underscores the laboratory’s role as a central hub for robotic space exploration. From the Voyager probes to the Perseverance rover, JPL-designed missions have shaped humanity’s understanding of the solar system, and the open house aims to inspire the next generation of explorers.