JPL 2008 Rose Parade Float
Published on Dec 28, 2007 at 1:09 pm.
5 Comments.
Filed under NASA, history.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is located in Pasadena, California. (Actually, only a small portion of the facility is actually in Pasadena. The rest is in the city of La Canada Flintridge. However, the front gate is in Pasadena, and Pasadena is much easier to say than La Canada Flintridge.) Pasadena, though, is also home to the Rose Bowl, and the Tournament of Roses. On January 1, there is a JPL float in the 2008 Rose Parade commemorating 50 years in space for the United States.
It was 50 years ago that mankind first put an object into orbit around Earth. First, it was the Soviet Union, on October 3, 1957, with Sputnik. Then, after several failures with the Vanguard rockets, the United States launched Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958. The JPL float has Explorer 1 at the center, with a future Mars rover at one end, and a Voyager interplanetary (now, interstellar) spacecraft at the other end. The float is covered with seaweed, eucalyptus leaves, and pea and walnut shells. It also, naturally, has lots and lots of flowers (it is the Tournament of Roses, after all!). It has roses, of course. But, it also has carnations, daisies, chrysanthemums, strawflowers, and everlastings.
Explorer 1, America’s first orbiting satellite, was actually built at JPL. At the time, JPL was an Army facility. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory first began in 1926 as the Gugenheim Aeronautical Laboratory. It was operated by the California Institute of Technology. Professor Theodore von Karman took the reins of the facility and in the 1930’s began rocketry experiments there. He secured funding from the Army to expand the rocket research, and eventually the name of the facility was changed to reflect the fact that it was primarily a rocket research center rather than just aeronautics. However, the 1930’s was also the time that pulp science fiction was gaining popularity. Rocketeers and rocketry were beginning to develop a mental image of Flash Gordon and similar flights of fantasy rather than being a serious scientific inquiry. So, it was decided that “Jet Propulsion Laboratory” was a much more dignified sounding name at the time than “Rocketry Laboratory.” During World War II, JPL became essentially an Army research center, developing rocket weapons and rocket propulsion packs to assist heavily laden aircraft to take off. In the 1950’s, JPL teamed up with another Army facility, the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, led by Wernher von Braun, to launch the first American satellite into orbit. The ABMA built the rocket, and JPL built the satellite: Explorer 1. Ever since, JPL has been a major player in unmanned American spacecraft. In 1958, JPL was transfered from the Army to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as one of that agencies first three facilities. Today, all of NASA’s unmanned extraterrestrial missions are controlled through JPL. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a NASA facility, but it is still managed by the California Institute of Technology, as it has been since its founding.
So, it is rather interesting that one of NASA’s initial facilities is in the right place to conveniently host a float for the 2008 Rose Parade in a few days to mark the 50th anniversary of Explorer 1, also produced right there. So, if you happen to watch the parade on January 1, then be sure to look for the JPL float.
-Astroprof
Geoffrey Lindsay on January 1, 2008 at 11:22 am: 1
I would like to know how many tax payer dollars were used to create this one-day memorial that seemed to give more billing to three people than to the mars mission itself?
Whiner Monitor on January 1, 2008 at 12:04 pm: 2
I would say about 2 cents per whiner like yourself Geoffrey.
The Mad Kiwi on January 1, 2008 at 1:03 pm: 3
Probably money well spent if it makes a few kids wonder about the universe around them right?
Astroprof on January 1, 2008 at 1:22 pm: 4
I don’t know who is funding this year’s float, but Caltech funded prior JPL floats. Also, my understanding is that Congress has mandated that NASA must spend a portion of their budget on public relations activities, and I am sure that the float would count as such. But, I suspect that Caltech is funding the float as in years past.
Jason on January 7, 2008 at 10:53 pm: 5
there are sponsors for each and every float that appears in the rose parade. and each of those floats are funded by that individual company or organization.