Subject Resources: JPL History: Print Books

All about the JPL Stories program, which is a collection of internal presentations about the non-technical aspects of various missions and people.

In 1977, Voyager 1 and 2 journeyed to the outer planets, gathering information about Jupiter and Saturn, sending scientists on earth their first close-up photographs of Uranus and Neptune, and collecting a series of images of the sun and its planets. Twenty years later, "Voyager Tales" presents a collection of interviews from a cross section of the professionals involved in all aspects of the mission.

Inside stories, fascinating facts, and eye-popping pictures of the red planet and NASA's groundbreaking Curiosity mission. Renowned author Kaufman spent two years embedded with the engineers and scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, cheering on the rover's spine-tingling landing, learning the backstory of anticipated findings, and witnessing the inescapable frustrations that come from operating a $2.5-billion multitasking robot on a planet 35 million miles from Earth.

NACA to NASA to Now tells the story of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), 1915-1958, and its successor, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). These two federal organizations facilitated the advance of technology for flight in the air and space throughout the twentieth and into the twenty-first century. Through aeronautics research, and later space technology, the United States became the world's leader in these areas

This book represents a clear an accurate history of the events that occurred within the US space program. Written in 1982 and starts the story with the predecessor of JPL in Pasadena, GALCIT, in the 1930s. Koppes shows in great detail how a few individuals in Pasadena started research on rockets that to some extent paralleled what Robert Goddard was doing in Mew Mexico. Goddard, however, was a loner and refused to share his results with anyone while Karman, Malina and others at JPL went on to form the mainstream of rocket development in the US before and during WWII. By the time Sputnik was launched, JPL had Wehrner von Braun & his team of rocket engineers to contend with. They had done a lot of work on telemetry and celestial navigation in the early '50s so they moved away from the propulsion end of space travel into satellites and interplanetary exploration.The book is filled with details of launches and budget fights but never in a way that is dry or boring.

Tells the story of engineering student Frank Malina and his friend, explosives enthusiast Jack Parsons. Together, they embarked on a journey that took them from junk yards and desert lots to the heights of the military-industrial complex. Malina designed the first American rocket to reach space and established the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But trouble found him when the FBI suspected him of being a communist. And when some classified documents went missing, Malina was thrust into the center of an increasingly serious investigation.

During the late 1960s, while M.G. Lord was becoming a teenager in Southern California and her mother was dying of cancer, Lord's father--an archetypal, remote, Cold War-era rocket engineer--disappeared into his work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, helping build the space probes of the Mariner Mars 69 mission. Thirty years later, Lord found herself reporting on the JPL, triggering childhood memories and a desire to revisit her past as a way of understanding the ethos of rocket science.

30 year veteran of JPL is chosen as its leader -- 2002; One year on the job -- 2003 -- 2004; Mars is now our sandbox; Dare mighty things -- 2005; JPL's latest space probe goes to Colorado Blvd -- 2006; JPL's lucky star? -- Across the universe -- 2009; A lifetime of curiosity -- Curiosity Rover lands safely on Mars; What it means to be an American -- 2015 -- JPL's role in marking "The Martian" a reality

Although the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has become synonymous with the United States' planetary exploration during the past half century, its most recent focus has been on Mars. Beginning in the 1990s and continuing through the Mars Phoenix mission of 2007, JPL led the way in engineering an impressive, rapidly evolving succession of Mars orbiters and landers, including roving robotic vehicles whose successful deployment onto the Martian surface posed some of the most complicated technical problems in space flight history. In Exploration and Engineering, Erik M. Conway reveals how JPL engineers' creative technological feats led to major Mars exploration breakthroughs. He takes readers into the heart of the lab's problem-solving approach and management structure, where talented scientists grappled with technical challenges while also coping, not always successfully, with funding shortfalls, unrealistic schedules, and managerial turmoil. Conway, JPL's historian, offers an insider's perspective into the changing goals of Mars exploration, the ways in which sophisticated computer simulations drove the design process, and the remarkable evolution of landing technologies over a thirty-year period.

Rob Manning, the project's chief engineer, tells of bringing the groundbreaking spacecraft to life. Manning and his team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, tasked with designing a lander many times larger and more complex than any before, faced technical setbacks, fights over inadequate resources, and the challenges of leading an army of brilliant, passionate, and often frustrated experts.

The story of the people who designed, built, launched, landed, and are now operating the Mars rover Curiosity. Award-winning science writer Rod Pyle provides a behind-the-scenes look into the recent space mission to Mars of Curiosity--the unmanned rover that is now providing researchers with unprecedented information about the red planet. Pyle follows the team of dedicated scientists whose job it is to explore new vistas on Mars

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: Voyager, Magellan, Galileo, the Mars rovers, and others 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 programs, 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.

During World War II, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate jet velocities and plot missile trajectories, they recruited an elite group of young women--known as human computers--who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design and helped bring about America's first ballistic missiles. But they were never interested in developing weapons--their hearts lay in the dream of space exploration. So when JPL became part of a new agency called NASA, the computers worked on the first probes to the moon, Venus, Mars, and beyond. Later, as digital computers largely replaced human ones, JPL was unique in training and retaining its brilliant pool of women. They became the first computer programmers and engineers, and through their efforts, we launched the ships that showed us the contours of our solar system. For the first time, Rise of the Rocket Girls tells the stories of these women who charted a course not only for the future of space exploration but also for the prospects of female scientists. Based on extensive research and interviews with the living members of the team, Rise of the Rocket Girls offers a unique perspective on the role of women in science, illuminating both where we've been and the far reaches of space to where we're heading

This book is a long-overdue history of three major centers that have managed important missions since the dawn of the space age. In Mission Control, Michael Johnson explores the famous Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, and the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany--each a strategically designed micro-environment responsible for the operation of spacecraft and the safety of passengers.

After the shock of watching Russia's Sputnik become the world's first artificial satellite, America's infant space program hurried to launch one of their own. In just 90 days, Dr. Henry Richter and his colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed and launched the nation's response. Through innovation, teamwork, and tenacity, these pioneering scientists and engineers began America's exploration of space that continues to determine our place in the cosmos. JPL and the First Explorer Satellites tracks the development of the Russian, Germany, and American rocketry programs through the World Wars and into the arms race of the Cold War. Dr. Richter's memories and extensive research shed a light into the earliest days of the space age. It is a fascinating story that is equal parts memoir and insider history of one of the world's most dynamic and revolutionary periods.