Verified facts grounded in source documentation.
JPL plans to expand the FAME demonstration to 20 spacecraft by late 2027.
JPL aims to expand the FAME demonstration to 60 satellites by mid-2028.
JPL plans to expand the FAME demonstration to seven spacecraft by spring 2026.
In February, JPL laid off 530 employees, equal to 8% of its workforce at the time, because of uncertainties about its fiscal year 2024 budget, particularly spending on the Mars Sample Return program led by the lab.
Affected JPL employees were scheduled to be notified on 2024-02-07 after staff meetings, with most employees expected to work from home that day.
Laurie Leshin wrote in a 2024-02-06 memo that JPL implemented a hiring freeze, reductions in MSR contracts, earlier contractor layoffs, and other spending cuts before moving to workforce reductions.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported that the Ingenuity Mars helicopter completed its 70th flight on 2023-12-22.
West Coast Solutions will produce and deliver four complete suites of Engineering Models for Flat Sat testing and four complete Flight Model suites for JPL, with all deliveries complete by early 2023.
The hyperspectral sensor technology for the Carbon Mapper satellites was pioneered by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and will provide a full spectral range of shortwave infrared with high-precision 5-nanometer-wide bands.
A consortium led by the State of California, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Planet plans to launch a Carbon Mapper constellation equipped with hyperspectral sensors to detect, quantify, and track sources of methane and carbon dioxide.