JPL history

Magellan being released from Space Shuttle Atlantis in May 1989.

Early in 1990, Voyager 1 turned its camera around to capture a series of images assembled into a "family portrait" of the solar system.

JPL's Wide Field and Planetary Camera being replaced during Servicing Mission 1, December 1993.

They formed a new company called “JPL Video Productions.” In 1995, JPL established the “Interactive Technologies Group.”

Cassini-Huygens spacecraft in JPL's 25 foot Space Simulator on January 31, 1997.

The Galileo orbiter lasted until September 2003, when JPL ordered it to plunge into Jupiter's atmosphere to ensure that it would not crash into, and contaminate, any of Jupiter's moons.

Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity looks back at its lander shell in 2004.

The Deep Impact mission launched a kinetic impactor at Comet Tempel 1 to assess its structure and composition in 2005.

JPL also won a cloud research mission, CloudSat, launched in 2006, as well as a series of atmospheric carbon dioxide measuring missions, the Orbiting Carbon Observatories, and the Aquarius sea surface salinity mission.

A composite image of Saturn and its rings, May 9, 2007.

On September 15, 2008, JPL Productions launched its new brand identity and became simply “JPL.” The change was the product of a two-year initiative to position the company as a strategic, integrated communications company rather than a media production house.

Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover drive testing at JPL in 2010.

In August 2012, Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause to become the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space.

JPL's most recent ESSP mission, ECOSTRESS, was attached to the International Space Station in May 2019. Its successor, GRACE-Follow On, launched in 2018.