SCIENCE

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory celebrated another milestone Monday on Halloween: its 86th birthday.

In 1936, seven young men drove out to a dry canyon wash in the San Gabriel Mountain foothills to test a liquid-fueled rocket engine, which few had attempted at that point in time.

The effort not only helped start the Space Age but gave birth to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which has participated in more than 100 missions to space in the decades since.

It took four attempts before the men were able to fire the rocket for three seconds, according to a NASA news release that details the day. An oxygen hose also broke loose and sent them scampering for safety as it thrashed around, but the result was encouraging enough for this group to keep going.

The Jet Propulsion Lab’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, an element of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, recently assisted in a mission that changed the motion of a celestial object for the first time.

It’s one of many missions that have helped the lab become a leader in robotic exploration beyond the moon.

— Brennon Dixson