JPL and the Space Age

Chronicling the story of NASA’s Cassini mission, this is the latest in our series of documentaries, “JPL and the Space Age.” These films use rare archival footage and interviews with pioneering engineers and scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in retelling the stories of many of humanity’s first steps into the cosmos.

Chronicling the story of NASA’s Cassini mission, this is the latest in our series of documentaries, “JPL and the Space Age.” These films use rare archival footage and interviews with pioneering engineers and scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in retelling of many of humanity’s first steps into the cosmos.

Many of the strategies surrounding the Cold War revolved around two things: nuclear weapons and rockets. And in the United States, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, under the supervision of Caltech, was charged with building America’s first tactical nuclear rockets: the Corporal and Sergeant missiles. At this same time, the United States and the Soviet Union were nearing the ability to launch a satellite into Earth orbit. JPL, working in collaboration with Wernher von Braun’s rocket efforts for the U.S. Army, believed they were fully capable of the feat, if only given the chance. That opportunity vanished in October 1957 when the Soviet Union shocked the world with the launch of Sputnik, the world’s first satellite. The Space Age was underway. The first U.S. response exploded on the launch pad. Only after that embarrassment was JPL and von Braun’s group given the green light. The success of Explorer 1, a satellite built by JPL, provided the world with the first space science discovery.

After the establishment of NASA in 1958, JPL’s first major assignment was to explore the Moon, taking close up images before crash landing as part of a series of missions called Ranger. JPL, however, had grander plans. The laboratory, having built and helped launch the first U.S. satellite into space, wanted to explore not only the Moon, but nearby planets. JPL would be humbled by a string of early failures that threatened the lab’s very future. “We didn’t know what we were doing,” one veteran JPL engineer confides in the program, “and there was no one around to tell us.” Ironically, a successful (although barely so) flyby of Venus by Mariner 2 in 1962 would give the United States its first “first in space.” And after finally succeeding with its Ranger program, JPL would go on to manage the highly successful Surveyor missions that soft landed on the Moon, serving as pathfinders for the Apollo astronauts. Destination Moon relives JPL’s struggles and triumphs at the Moon and Venus.

Other than Earth, no planet in our solar system has been so thoroughly or long examined as Mars. For decades, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has continuously explored the Red Planet with an array of orbiters, landers, and rovers. What laid the groundwork for this unparallel record of exploration? This 90-minute documentary describes the challenges of JPL’s first attempts to send spacecraft to the Red Planet. For much of human history, Mars was no more than a tiny reddish dot in the sky. But in 1965, the first spacecraft ever to visit Mars, JPL’s Mariner 4, began to change our understanding of the planet with its grainy black and white images. The data from Mariner 4, and from missions that followed, were full of confusing data for scientists to understand. The Changing Face of Mars reveals, through archival footage and interviews with key scientists and engineers, JPL's first roles in exploring the Red Planet, from Mariner 4, through the 1976 arrival of the Viking missions.

Think "NASA," and what comes to mind? Astronauts? Mars rovers? Voyager and the Golden Record? How about Earth? In fact, NASA has been studying and monitoring the health of our home planet for decades, using balloons, aircraft, satellites, and even the International Space Station in the effort. “Sky High,” the 16th documentary in the series “JPL and the Space Age,” traces the efforts of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to measure greenhouse gases, from the pathfinding science instrument AIRS, through to today’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 aboard the space station.

In 1990, Hubble meant trouble. The highly touted space telescope was designed to escape Earth’s blurry atmosphere to capture unparalleled visual images of the universe, but its creators were shocked to discover that a minuscule flaw rendered it nearsighted. Enter NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists and engineers, who offered up an ingenious solution to Hubble’s visual woes. But would it work? Hubble wasn’t the only space misadventure getting JPL’s attention during the 1990s: The Magellan spacecraft, nicknamed “Salvage 1” for its reliance on spare parts, barely survived its arrival at Venus. Galileo, destined for Jupiter, barely skirted failure when its main communications antenna refused to unfurl. And Mars Observer, the first mission to the Red Planet in nearly two decades, would mysteriously disappear just before going into orbit.

It started with JPL agreeing to land something on Mars – cheaply – and do it in a radically different way. This is how the era NASA called “Faster, Better, Cheaper” began. The documentary film “The Pathfinders” tells the story of a small group of engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who did not heed warnings that the audacious challenge of landing on Mars with airbags would likely not be a career-enhancing move. From relying on a parachute that could not be tested in a way to match the Martian atmosphere to receiving the late addition of an unwanted rover that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a toy store, the Mars Pathfinder mission was a doubter’s dream, taken on by a mostly young group of engineers and scientists guided by a grizzled manager known for his maverick ways. “The Pathfinders” retraces the journey of this daring mission to Mars that captured the imagination of people around the world with its dramatic landing and its tiny rover.

If any spacecraft could be said to have had nine lives, it was Galileo. At the time of its launch, this mission to Jupiter was the most sophisticated science spacecraft ever built. But the expectation of great science rewards almost was ruined when the spacecraft’s main antenna refused to unfurl. “Saving Galileo” is the story of how NASA’s Galileo mission - designed, built, and operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory - was kept alive despite a multitude of technical challenges. It is also the story of a tight-knit team of scientists and engineers who were forged by adversity into what many came to call a family. “Saving Galileo” tells how, despite many challenges and limitations, Galileo proved a resounding success.

In 1977, the greatest adventure in space exploration began with the launch of the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, two robotic explorers designed to explore the deep reaches of our solar system. The Voyagers were the creations of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where a brash young scientist had just been put in charge. His ambition was to take the next steps in exploring the solar system. Instead, he found himself struggling for JPL’s very survival in the midst of financial cutbacks at the very same time of the Voyagers' triumphs of discoveries at Jupiter and Saturn. “The Stuff of Dreams” tells the story of the Voyagers’ astounding successes and unexpected discoveries – but most of all, it’s a tale of perseverance by people and machines struggling against forces put in their way.

While the legendary Voyager 2 was in the midst of its triumphant Grand Tour through the outer planets, the space shuttle era was underway on Earth. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory would be among the first to demonstrate how NASA’s new shuttle could be used to conduct science experiments about our own planet from the vantage of space. But for launching missions to targets beyond Earth orbit, the shuttle posed engineering challenges. One mission that launched from the shuttle was Galileo, JPL’s flagship mission to Jupiter, and its route to the launch pad would be full of unexpected twists and turns. Drawing on rare film footage as well as the memories of the engineers and scientists who were there, “The Footsteps of Voyager” recounts the dramatic experiences of these first-ever encounters at Uranus and Neptune and the efforts to deploy Galileo, a mission that would become the first to orbit an outer planet.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s success in landing the low-cost Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997 was viewed as proof that spacecraft could be built more often and for far less money — a radical cultural change NASA termed “Faster, Better, Cheaper.” This era also coincided with the discovery of a Mars rock that hinted at the possibility of microbial life elsewhere in the solar system. NASA’s reaction was to envision a steady stream of missions to Mars — all done at cut-rate costs. In fact, the next challenge taken on by JPL was to fly two missions to Mars for the price of the single Pathfinder mission. Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander both made it to the launch pad, on time and on budget, but were lost upon arrival at Mars, resulting in one of the most difficult periods in the history of JPL. “The Breaking Point” tells the story of the demise of these two missions and the abrupt end of NASA’s “Faster, Better, Cheaper” era.

“The American Rocketeer” is the story of the origins of JPL, the world’s premier center for the exploration of the solar system and beyond. It’s also the story of one man’s reach for the stars. The central figure throughout this episode is Frank Malina, whose fundamental role in the evolution of American rocketry is largely unknown and remains uncelebrated. As an idealistic Caltech graduate student during the midst of the Great Depression, Malina agreed to lead a motley crew of amateur rocket enthusiasts and fellow Caltech students attempting to launch rockets in hopes of one day reaching space. That led to building rockets for the U.S. Army during World War II. Malina helped to win a world war, only to later see his country turn against him and declare him an international fugitive. Through it all, he kept meticulous records, hoping to ensure his pioneering role in American rocketry.

After the devastating loss of two back-to-back missions to Mars in 1999, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory found itself at a crossroads: Would the lab pull back, becoming more cautious and conservative with the new missions it was willing to take on? Or would JPL continue its tradition of pursuing challenging and innovative missions? That question was answered when JPL proposed designing and building an entirely new type of Mars rover from scratch on top of an extremely tight schedule, and launching not one, but two of them to the Red Planet. “Mission to Mars” tells how engineers and scientists overcame multiple adversities to design, build, test, and launch the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, two of NASA’s most storied missions.

In the summer of 2003, two NASA rovers began their journeys to Mars at a time when the Red Planet and Earth were the nearest they had been to each other in 60,000 years. To capitalize on this alignment, the rovers had been built at breakneck speed by teams at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The mission came amid further pressures, from mounting international competition to increasing public scrutiny following the loss of the space shuttle Columbia and its crew of seven. NASA was in great need of a success. “Landing on Mars” is the story of Opportunity and Spirit surviving a massive solar flare during cruise, the now well-known “six minutes of terror,” and what came close to being a mission-ending software error for the first rover once it was on the ground.

Asteroids and comets are among the oldest objects in our solar system. They mostly reside at safe distances from Earth, but some find their way into our planetary backyard. Every day, the Earth receives visitors from outer space: tons of space debris that mostly goes unnoticed. Some of these “shooting stars,” however, do survive the fiery descent through the atmosphere. That’s what happened to the dinosaurs 65 million years ago when a massive asteroid – or comet – struck Earth. But as the saying goes: "The dinosaurs didn't have a space agency. Fortunately, we do." “The Hunt for Space Rocks” chronicles JPLs pioneering work to understand asteroids and comets as part of NASA’s larger effort to protect our planet from cosmic marauders. From JPL’s effort to mount a mission to study the most famous comet of all – Halley’s comet – to the lab’s current role in planetary defense with its Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).