The best current ( 2009 ) estimate of the International Astronomical Union ( IAU ) for the value of the astronomical unit in meters is A = m, based on a comparison of JPL and IAA – RAS ephemerides.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) is a federally funded research and development center ( FFRDC ) owned by NASA and operated as a division of Caltech through a contract between NASA and Caltech.

The JPL Director also serves as a Caltech Vice President and is responsible to the President of the Institute for the management of the Laboratory.

The time scale represented by T < sub > eph </ sub > is closely related to, but distinct ( by an offset and constant rate ) from, the TCB time scale currently adopted as a standard by the IAU ( see below: JPL ephemeris time argument Teph ).

Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in Pasadena, California.

JPL is managed by the nearby California Institute of Technology ( Caltech ) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

JPL has been recognized four times by the Space Foundation: with the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award, which is given annually to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to public awareness of space programs, in 1998 ; and with the John L. " Jack " Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration on three occasions – in 2009 ( as part of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Team ), 2006 and 2005.

Almost all of the of the U. S. federal government / NASA owned property that makes up the JPL campus is today located in the city of La Cañada Flintridge, California, on the northwest border of Pasadena, with a La Cañada Flintridge address ( 4800 Oak Grove Drive, La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011 ).

The lab has an open house once a year on a Saturday and Sunday in May or June, when the public is invited to tour the facilities and see live demonstrations of JPL science and technology.

There is a tradition at JPL to eat " good luck peanuts " before critical mission events, such as orbital insertions or landings.

The JPL Advanced Projects Design Team, also known as Team X, is an interdisciplinary team of engineers that " utilizes concurrent engineering methodologies to complete rapid design, analysis and evaluation of mission concept designs ".

* The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Developmental Ephemeris ( JPL DE ) is a widely used model of the solar system, which combines celestial mechanics with numerical analysis and astronomical and spacecraft data.

Among the inner centaurs, 2005 VD, with a perihelion distance very near Jupiter, is listed as a centaur by both JPL and DES.

The adjectival form of Mimas is Mimantean or Mimantian, and this is accepted by the Cassini mission at JPL.

DSN is part of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ).

The network is a NASA facility and is managed and operated for NASA by JPL, which is part of the California Institute of Technology ( Caltech ).

The Interplanetary Network Directorate ( IND ) manages the program within JPL and is charged with the development and operation of it.

While the IND is best known for its duties relating to the Deep Space Network, the organization also maintains the JPL Advanced Multi-Mission Operations System ( AMMOS ) and JPL's Institutional Computing and Information Services ( ICIS ).

ITT Systems is under a 5 year contract to JPL for the DSN Operations and Maintenance.

Once the data is processed at the complexes, it is transmitted to JPL for further processing and for distribution to science teams over a modern communications network.

The JPL SVLBI project, funded by NASA, supports the VSOP ( VLBI Space Observatory Program ) mission developed by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science ( ISAS ) in Japan.

* M < sup > 3 </ sup >, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper from Brown University and JPL ( funded by NASA ) is an imaging spectrometer designed to map the surface mineral composition.

In 2008, JPL spent over $ 1. 6 billion on research and development and employed over 5, 000 project-related and support employees.

Caltech and JPL jointly offer research opportunities for students, such as the SURF program ( Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship ).

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) at the California Institute of Technology was an Army research operation at that time, years before NASA.

In 1980 he joined the Earth and Space Sciences Division of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) as a scientist doing planetary research, and from 1982 through 1985 he was a flight controller responsible for Shuttle payload operations at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

At JPL he was responsible for the inception and development of containerless processing science and technology research.

Research time is granted to Caltech and its research partners, which includes the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) and Cornell University.

Martin has been a research scientist in the Navigation and Mission Design Section at the JPL since 1986.

In the early 1990s KDA was involved with NASA's JPL and Germany's DASA in software development of the test / checkout system, as well as spacecraft hardware production, for the NASA / ESA Cassini-Huygens space probe.

Cole also took steps to control its technology by creating an in-house development organization ( headed by Harvey Jean, formerly of JPL, as VP engineering ), and to diversify by funding two outside development teams: Forefront Corporation ( the developer of the product that would later be named " Framework ") and Queue Associates.

JPL was transferred to NASA in December 1958, becoming the agency ’ s primary planetary spacecraft center.

< center > This 1961 photo shows Dr. William H. Pickering, ( center ) JPL Director, presenting a Mariner spacecraft model to President John F. Kennedy, ( right ).

In addition to the DSN complexes and the operations center, a ground communications facility provides communications that link the three complexes to the operations center at JPL, to space flight control centers in the United States and overseas, and to scientists around the world.

Five tiger teams were set up to find and correct the problem, one at each NASA center, from CalTech JPL in the west to Goddard SFC ( GSFC ) in the east.

Old Pasadena began as the center of an enlightened " Athens of the West " that gave rise to Caltech, JPL, as well as Beckman Instruments, Aerojet and numerous other industrial giants.

Typically, unmanned earth observation missions and observatories in Earth orbit are managed by GSFC, while unmanned planetary missions are managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) in Pasadena, California.

The mission is managed by the JPL, at California Institute of Technology, La Canada Flintridge, California, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D. C.

WFPC was proposed by James A. Westphal, a professor of planetary science at Caltech, and was designed, constructed, and managed by JPL.

The experiment, as managed by Dr. Dan Karmon of JPL, was successful.

JPL engineers designed and operated Ranger and Surveyor missions to the Moon that prepared the way for Apollo.

Mariner Mark II was NASA's planned family of unmanned spacecraft for the exploration of the outer solar system that were to be developed and operated by JPL between 1990 through the year 2010.