Overview

In the decades since the mid-1970s, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has led the quest to explore the farthest reaches of the solar system. JPL spacecraft, including Voyager, Magellan, Galileo, and the Mars rovers, have brought the planets into close view. JPL satellites and instruments also shed new light on the structure and dynamics of earth itself, while their orbiting observatories opened new vistas on the cosmos. This comprehensive book recounts the extraordinary story of the lab's accomplishments, failures, and evolution from 1976 to the present day. This history of JPL encompasses far more than the story of the events and individuals that have shaped the institution. It also engages wider questions about relations between civilian and military space programmes, the place of science and technology in American politics, and the impact of the work at JPL on the way we imagine the place of humankind in the universe.

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9780300110753

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Reviews

This is a fascinating history of a truly great institution. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is, as it were, the ''shadow in time'' of the people who led it: Pickering, Murray, Allen and Stone. This book weaves the character of each of these leaders into a coherent and understandable picture. --Hans Mark, University of Texas at Austin --Hans Mark

This is a fascinating history of a truly great institution. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is, as it were, the 'shadow in time' of the people who led it: Pickering, Murray, Allen and Stone. This book weaves the character of each of these leaders into a coherent and understandable picture. Hans Mark, University of Texas at Austin--Hans Mark

This is a fascinating history of a truly great institution. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is, as it were, the ''shadow in time'' of the people who led it: Pickering, Murray, Allen and Stone. This book weaves the character of each of these leaders into a coherent and understandable picture. --Hans Mark, University of Texas at Austin--Hans Mark

Westwick has written a very comprehensive history of a high-performance organization, one that has made major contributions both technologically and to the public's imagination. -John M. Logsdon, Space Policy Institute, George Washington University -- John M. Logsdon

Author Information

Peter J. Westwick is Olin Fellow, International Security Studies, Yale University. His first book, The National Labs: Science in an American System, 1947-1974, was awarded the Book Prize of the Forum for History of Science in America in 2004.

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