02/01/2026
Dare Mighty Things! 🔺
Being a NASA Solar System Ambassador takes me to some spectacular places, but none like our SSA home base of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory !
What’s at the “Center of the Universe”? 🌀
🔴 Life size mock Mars rovers (like Curiosity, Perseverance, and even Ingenuity 🚁)
🔭 The Spacecraft Assembly Facility! Pictured here in High Bay 1 being built is ASTHROS (a sweet telescope!)
⭐️ JPL’s plaque at the Center of the Universe! (If you can prove it actually is, you get a Nobel Peace Prize!)
🛰️ Life size mock satellites including Voyager, SWOT, Galileo, and more!
📡 Deep Space Operations Control Center (DSOCC - think, Mission Control but beyond) where the Deep Space Network is coordinated and rovers, satellites and more can be communicated with!
🏜️ Mars Yard! Where life sized prototype mars rovers are experimented with and tested before the real deal goes!
🥜 Lucky Peanuts? Yep. Starting in the 1960’s the DSOC team will eat peanuts on high stake events, and they still do today!
💫 and so much more!
9️⃣0️⃣ years ago, JPL was started by the “Suicide Squad,” a crew of Caltech grad students. The “rocket boys”, kept blowing up stuff on campus, and relocated to a dry riverbed to keep testing.
That’s exactly where JPL still stands today!💥
