New wave of layoffs within the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, iconic NASA laboratory – Libération

After having already had to cut its workforce at the start of the year, the prestigious JPL, in particular responsible for rover missions on other planets, announced Tuesday, November 12, 325 new job cuts.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is going through a rough patch. Responsible for the most important space missions in the solar system – and in particular for all the rovers which have set foot on Martian soil – “JPL” announced on Tuesday, November 12, the dismissal of approximately 5% of its workforce, or 325 people. A blow all the harder as this is the second wave of downsizing of the year, since 530 employees and 40 contract workers had already been laid off in February.

Created in 1936 by enthusiasts who were working on the first rocket engines, the JPL was first requested by the American army during and after the Second World War. The laboratory then made it possible to put the very first artificial satellite of the United States (Explorer 1) into orbit in early 1958, by building both the satellite and the upper stages of the rocket, and by organizing follow-up after takeoff. Enough to acquire an essential pioneering role in the booming space sector. JPL was attached to the newly created American space agency, NASA, in 1958, and the latter has since continued to count on its engineers to push the frontiers of human exploration.

In the 1960s, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed the Surveyor probes which successfully completed the first soft moon landings, then the Mariner probes to fly over Mars and Venus… It sent