PRODUCED AND WRITTEN BY: Blaine Baggett FORMAT: Movie RUNNING TIME: Varies—60 to 90 minutes RATING: NR RELEASE DATE: 2021 Available on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s website: www.jpl.nasa.gov/who-we-are/documentary-series-jpl-and-the-space-age

>> reviewed by Melissa Silva <<

The Arroyo Seco, which means “dry stream” in Spanish, is a trickling stream tributary in Los Angeles County, California. The region is considered the birthplace of Pasadena; in traditional narratives by the native San Gabriolino Indian tribe, it’s said that the sound its rapids make, akin to laughter, was the result of a wager made between the river and coyote spirits. As the myth goes, the coyote challenged the river to a race and ran as fast as he could, beating the river only to collapse shortly after from exhaustion. The river then roared by, laughing all the while.

Imbued with the spirit of persistence, this nowdry canyon would become the home to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also known as JPL. The laboratory can trace its origin to 1936, when a group of graduate students from the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory were experimenting with rockets—rocket propulsion, to be exact—at the California Institute of Technology. Professor Theodore von Kármán, namesake of the Kármán line, a loose boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space, oversaw the experiments, which were led by Frank Malina. Eventually, these experiments would move to Arroyo Seco, the future home of JPL.

Von Kármán was an adviser to the United States Army Air Corps and would persuade the Army to fund the development of jets mounted on heavy propeller planes to assist with takeoff, a technology known as “Jet Assisted Takeoff” or JATO . After the group proved the success of the rockets, they renamed the organization the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and received funding from the U.S. Army. In 1958, when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established, JPL was transferred to the agency, to remain under management by Caltech.