Arya News - NASA`s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California has come through the L.A. fires in one piece. It will open next week to employees who need to work on site.
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The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California is a research and development lab federally funded by NASA and managed by Caltech. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA"s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will soon start getting back to normal operations after weathering the raging L.A. fires.
JPL lies at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains just north of Los Angeles and was threatened by the Eaton Fire , which has devastated neighboring communities such as Altadena.
The center — NASA"s lead facility for planetary exploration — has been closed since Jan. 8 except for essential activities, such as operating the Perseverance and Curiosity Mars rovers and other missions. But the Eaton Fire is no longer a danger to the lab, so JPL plans to reopen its doors next week.
"From Tuesday, Jan. 21 through Jan. 24, 2025, the Lab will be accessible to any personnel who need to work on site. Personnel who are able to telework for the week are encouraged to do so, as full and final cleanup of the facility is completed," JPL officials wrote on the center"s emergency-information site on Friday (Jan. 17).
Related: Facts and information about NASA"s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Though JPL made it through the fire unscathed , much of its workforce did not.
"Significant devastation in our community. 1,000 still evacuated. More than 150 lost homes completely, many others will be displaced long term," JPL Director Laurie Leshin wrote in an X post on Jan. 10 .
In another post that day, Leshin linked to a disaster-relief fundraising site devoted to helping those JPL workers, as well as employees of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which manages the facility for NASA.