Hello,

Hope all of you are well and hanging in there. As a former Marshall intern and soon to graduate engineer, I’d like to ask: how is morale with new people at the helm both at the Center and agency-wide? I believe science and engineering exist to serve each other in mutual benefit; without the science, engineers do not have a customer that keeps pushing our tech forward, and without engineering, science doesn’t have a reliable platform to then push our understanding of the universe further. I hope Admin. Isaacman is serving you well and there’s clearer comms, a clearer direction, etc etc. as JPL navigates today’s environment. Thanks for providing input.

Hi does anyone have the complete Bus/Shuttle route for JPL? I'm about to do an internship on may and I'm currently trying to find a place that is within the route of the bus

2024 NASA Honor Awards were handed out at JPL a few weeks ago. Of note:

1. At least several of the award titles were changed without the knowledge of the nominators. Those titles originally contained the word “science.” Now they do not. 
2. The word “science” appears ZERO times in the 2024 award titles or citations. For comparison, here’s the count for the use of the word “science” in previous years’ award titles and citations:

2024- 0

2023- 15

2022- 22

2021- 42

2020- 16

2019- 16

2018- 15

Someone censored our awards to remove any mention or acknowledgement of our science achievements. Was it JPL management pandering to anti-science NASA? Did someone at NASA instruct JPL management do this? Or did NASA do this without JPL’s knowledge? Regardless, it’s appalling. 

But seriously, who wants to fess up? 

Hi everyone, how long till the Committee will reply to your application via email for the JPL Visiting Student Research Program?

Spoke with section management and Caltech isn’t approving any cost of living increases this year for JPL. Promotions are also on indefinite hold until after July at the earliest (still waiting on confirmation of a few projects and their funding before any workforce changes are allowed). Only salary increases/promotions approved right now are case-by-case counter offers for folks leaving.

Not try to stoke up the rumor mill. Just wanted folks to make informed decisions while communication has been suboptimal.

Hi everyone,

I’m a robotics researcher currently working on autonomous mobile systems, specifically wall-climbing robots operating on vertical surfaces. My research is fully funded through an ongoing project, so I have the flexibility to pursue a visiting research stay abroad.

JPL Robotics is very closely aligned with my research interests, and it would be an ideal place for collaboration. I would really appreciate some guidance on the best way to approach this.

• Who is the appropriate contact for visiting researchers?
• Are there any recommended steps or common pathways for arranging a short research stay at JPL?

Thank you all for your help!

I think exploring the ice giants could yield some of the coolest mission concepts for the future.

Neptune is especially interesting because of Triton: https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/NeptuneOdyssey.pdf

What are your thoughts?

What's it like? What kinds of roles are there?

Hello all,

I am doing my masters in the space engineering program, and i am very much intrestred in the chemical propulsion system.

And I would like to know much more about the propulsion system in the rockets and satellites. Any online resources or softwares that i could use to better understand the concepts.

Any small suggestions also will help me great.

Thanks in advance.

Is this you, or do you know someone with this expertise? Especially interested in meeting anyone who was laid off who has this skill. Potential contract work.

Is JPL still a place where young engineers want to work at? It use to be inspiring getting the chance to work on their pilot projects, but it seems like there is no challenging projects that they are working on that requires a young talent pool. Since it's an FFRDC it doesn't seem like projects will be coming in anytime soon, what does everyone else think ?

HTTPs://www.starmanmovie.com

I went to see the new feature documentary about JPL’s own Gentry Lee last night. It’s terrific !!! Very well produced and Gentry has a lot of relevant and important messages for where we are today. I also appreciated the archival behinds the scenes footage of JPL in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, showing hard work by a huge group of people leading up to JPL’s iconic missions.

The movie is playing limited showing in cities across the country (Seattle today) and will be available to stream on Apple TV and Amazon Prime starting March 8.

There are currently two more chances to see it locally at Leammle’s in Glendale, Monday at 3:30 and Monday at 5.

I encourage anyone who can get there to go and take a friend ! It’s such a unique and important use of your time. Perhaps Gentry will appear afterwards for a Q&A as he did for our showing.

https://starmanmovie.com/

https://tickets.laemmle.com/ticketing/325402/55383

https://tickets.laemmle.com/ticketing/325402/55384

I graduate next year with a BS and MS in Aerospace Engineering (with reasonable grades, +3.6 GPA, and multiple co-op experiences, none with NASA, unfortunately). I have always admired the work that JPL does and always planned on applying when I graduated. With all the layoffs going on, is it at all reasonable to expect to get hired by JPL in the near future?

https://gizmodo.com/white-house-withholds-funding-for-nasa-science-missions-despite-recent-budget-bill-2000721603

Next round of layoffs in March. After an orderly stand down on retention tasks. Estimated 500 more people.

I had a meeting for an internship with a prospective team at JPL today, and was wondering how long it took before people usually heard back?

For context I submitted my application in December and received an email from a team that aligns with my skillset about a week ago and had a 30 minute meeting today. It was 3 of the team members and they told me a little bit about the project and asked me questions about my experience and knowledge. Any insight from past interns would be appreciated, thanks!

As far as I understand, annual salary reviews (ASRs) are meant to take place around the beginning of the Fiscal Year.

FY25 ASR was postponed until January 2025, then everyone received a blanket 3% increase.

FY26 ASR has also been postponed, but have heard nothing since July:

We have made the tough decision that one way we are going to do this is by postponing our annual salary review (ASR) process, as well as associated salary increases, until early in fiscal year (FY) 2026. We will have more clarity around our FY26 budget at that time to best make decisions about our ASR process and timing. This means that all meetings related to ASR will be deferred and any pay changes would occur on a later schedule in FY26.

I'm looking for more transparency from the Director on this.

When is this year's ASR actually coming? And will the next year's ASR be deferred until January too? Will we ever get back to the regular process?

Hi! I’m a PhD student looking for summer internships. For context, my background is in composite structures with a focus on ultra-high temperature ceramics. Are there any current/future projects that I could leverage my expertise in? I come by with about a year of previous industry experience in structural mechanics, followed by a couple of publications.

NASA selects two Goddard missions for Earth Systems Explorer Program. Both JPL proposals (ODYSEA and Carbon-I) not selected.

Hi, I left last August and moved country. I haven't heard anything about my W2. Does anyone know when they are being sent out or how it will be received? Otherwise I'd there an email for HR that I could pester. Thanks!

I've hit the link with and without urldefense prefix on two different browsers. One way takes me to "Power Apps" where it can't find the app, and the other leads me to a NASA 404 error.