By Mary O’KEEFE

“First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

– President John F. Kennedy, May 25, 1961 

Those words seem like they were spoken several lifetimes ago. When President Kennedy dared to dream of space travel it seemed almost impossible that we would someday actually land humans on the Moon and return safely to Earth. Everyone in the U.S. seemed to be energized by the space race with the Russians. 

I was in elementary school when we landed on the Moon. I could not get enough of space news. From the Mercury program to Apollo missions, I never missed the nightly news to find out what was going on. I cut out articles from the Des Moines Register that had anything to do with space.

One of my best memories was sitting with my grandma on July 20, 1969 and watching the Eagle land on the surface of the Moon. Both my grandma and I cried; I because this was my future and she because she had seen so much progress in her life (she was born in 1889). My dad, a U.S. Air Force veteran, saw it through a different lens: we “beat” the Russians. 

In those days, American pride could be felt everywhere you went. Not only did we beat the Russians to the Moon and plant our flag but eventually we would play golf on the lunar surface and even ride a rover.

Americans with their ingenuity, bravery and explorers’ souls were in full force. All of a sudden we all knew what NASA was but what many of us didn’t know was the role other organizations played … like the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

For those who live in this area, JPL is just part of life. Until recently we all knew someone who worked there; now unfortunately many of us know someone who used to work there.

JPL has been part of the fabric of Southern California since it began in the 1930s.

According to JPL history, Frank Malina, along with rocket enthusiasts from the Pasadena area, moved their work off the Caltech campus to a dry canyon known as the Arroyo Seco. There they tested rockets. Caltech professor Theodore von Kármán oversaw the rocket scientists and was also an advisor to the U.S. Army. He persuaded the U.S. Army to fund the development of jets mounted on heavy propeller planes to assist take-off from short runways. The Army then helped Caltech purchase the land in the Arroyo Seco, where JPL is now, and by the time WWII began their motors were in high demand by the U.S. military. 

JPLers eventually went from developing rockets to developing missiles. When the space race began, it fit perfectly in the wheelhouse of JPLers. The Russians had launched Sputnik 1 on Oct. 4, 1957. That was the first artificial satellite successfully launched …. but not by us. It looked like the Russians were going to not only lead this race but win it; however, what they didn’t realize was what JPLers were doing at the time. On Jan. 31, 1958 their mission Explorer 1 was launched. That satellite went beyond Sputnik and carried the first space experiment. 

Just an FYI: JPL started before NASA.

“With Explorer I, JPL vaulted the U.S. into space and prompted the formation of NASA. On Dec. 3, 1958, two months after NASA started operations, JPL was transferred from Army jurisdiction to that of the new civilian space agency. The laboratory brought to NASA experience in building and flying spacecraft, an extensive background in solid and liquid rocket propulsion systems, guidance, control, systems integration, broad testing capability, and expertise in telecommunications using low-power spacecraft transmitters and very sensitive Earth-based antennas and receivers,” according to JPL history. 

JPLers have been exploring space since those Caltech students started with their rocket science. The journey in space exploration has taken the U.S. down paths of technology advancement that have been used on our home planet. 

For example, according to JPL image sensors that would later be used in GoPros and in all modern digital cameras, including those in cellphones, were first developed in the early 1990s at NASA’s JPL.

“Those rudimentary sensor arrays used less power and were easier to mass produce than the standard methods of the time, helping to kickstart an entire industry,” according to JPL. 

NASA’s JPL invented the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) imaging that was incorporated into dental X-rays, which meant lower doses of radiation were required per X-ray. 

And you know when you’re in the dentist chair and they take X-rays and you see them almost immediately on a screen? Well you can thank JPL for that, too. 

JPL partnered with John Deere and created self-driving tractors leading to “precision agriculture.” 

Many JPL innovations have improved health care including during the pandemic when, in just 37 days, JPL engineers developed a low cost ventilator prototype specifically to help COVID patients. 

Honestly, I could go on forever about how JPL’s innovations have helped humans and have allowed the U.S. to have bragging rights to technology, Earth science exploration and space exploration … but that was then and this in now.

The cuts at JPL on Tuesday are just another round in the U.S. being taken out of the space queue. 

Former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine stated that it is “highly unlikely” the U.S. will beat China to [colonize] the Moon … and that is just the Moon. The U.S. also wanted to colonize Mars but even that does not look hopeful – and this time it’s not Russia but China that will be winning the race as its Mars exploration plans continue to move forward. 

The fact is these JPLers who were laid off on Tuesday, and those who were laid off in February 2024, have so much science and technology to share and other countries are aware of that. Programs like “Safe Place for Science” and “Choose Europe for Science” initiatives will no doubt attract ex-JPLers – much to the detriment of the United States.

JPL has always been a place where new innovations are made and … I have to say it …  to explore strange new worlds … and to boldly go. 

It’s not that with these layoffs JPL and NASA will stop exploring – just that we may not be as bold as we once were.

There does not appear to be any rain in the forecast for the upcoming week; however, tonight and into tomorrow we will see some “mild” Santa Ana winds with gusts up to about 20 mph. 

We will be seeing some slightly above normal temperatures with highs in the high 70s to low 80s that will continue into next week.