Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center in Pasadena, California, United States. Founded in 1936 by Caltech researchers, the laboratory is now owned and sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and administered and managed by the California Institute of Technology.
The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) is a worldwide network of spacecraft communication ground segment facilities, located in the United States (California), Spain (Madrid), and Australia (Canberra), that supports NASA's interplanetary spacecraft missions. It also performs radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the Solar System and the universe, and supports selected Earth-orbiting missions. DSN is part of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex (GDSCC), commonly called the Goldstone Observatory, is a satellite ground station located in Fort Irwin in the U.S. state of California. Operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), its main purpose is to track and communicate with interplanetary space missions. It is named after Goldstone, California, a nearby gold-mining ghost town.
John Mace Grunsfeld is an American physicist and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of five Space Shuttle flights and has served as NASA Chief Scientist. His academic background includes research in high energy astrophysics, cosmic ray physics and the emerging field of exoplanet studies with specific interest in future astronomical instrumentation. After retiring from NASA in 2009, he served as the deputy director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. In January 2012, he returned to NASA and served as associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD). Grunsfeld announced his retirement from NASA in April 2016.
Steven Wayne Lindsey is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and NASA astronaut. Lindsey served as Chief of the NASA Astronaut Office from September 2006 until October 2009.
William Arthur Pailes is a former USAF astronaut in the Manned Spaceflight Engineer Program during the mid-1980s. He served as a payload specialist on STS-51-J Atlantis.
The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) is a postgraduate institution and provider of professional and continuing education for the United States Armed Forces and is part of the United States Air Force. It is in Ohio at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton. AFIT is a component of the Air University and Air Education and Training Command.
Mira Mesa Senior High School (MMHS) is a public high school in the San Diego Unified School District. The school is recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School and a California Distinguished School. The school has an overall rating of 9.6/10 according to parents and students from the website greatschools.org. The school serves the Mira Mesa community as well as students participating in the San Diego Unified School Districts Voluntary Enrollment Exchange Program (VEEP).
Army and Navy Academy is an elite private college-preparatory military boarding school for boys in Carlsbad, California. Founded in 1910, the academy admits boys in grades 7 through 12.
The Lewis Center for Educational Research (LCER) is an educational organization located in Apple Valley, California. It is the parent organization of The Academy for Academic Excellence (AAE), the only research charter school in the state of California. The Lewis Center has a working educational relationship with NASA and operationally manages the Goldstone-Apple Valley Radio Telescope. The Lewis Center has three sites throughout Apple Valley:
Space Coast Junior/Senior High School is located in Brevard County, Florida, in the community of Port St. John, Florida, United States. It is part of the Brevard County School District. The school name comes from its location, on the Space Coast. The high school graduated its first class in 2006. Dual enrollment is also offered, which allows students to take college classes at Eastern Florida State College to earn college credit; some of these students receive their associate degree at the same time as their high school diploma.
Apple Valley High School (AVHS) is a public four-year high school located in Apple Valley, California, United States. It is a part of the Apple Valley Unified School District. Built in 1967, it was the only comprehensive high school in the Town of Apple Valley until 1999 when Granite Hills High School opened. The campus has expanded with growth and was modernized with local bond funds in 2002.
Merrill F. West High School is a four-year, public secondary school located on the northwest side of Tracy, California, United States. A member of the Tracy Unified School District, the school was founded in 1993. Enrollment in 2018–2019 was 2,043 students.
San Marcos High School is a high school in the North County city of San Marcos, California. San Marcos High School is a member of the San Marcos Unified School District and serves students from San Marcos, Vista, and Carlsbad. Out of the 4 high schools in the district, it the largest in San Marcos Unified by student enrollment at more than 3000 in 2021. San Marcos High School also has a joint program with LCC High School nearby to serve students in the area.
Louis D. Brandeis High School is a public high school located in San Antonio, Texas (USA). It is part of the Northside Independent School District located in northwest Bexar County. All comprehensive high schools in the Northside Independent School District (NISD) are named for US Supreme Court Justices, in this case for Justice Louis D Brandeis. For the 2021-22 school year, the school was given a "B" by the Texas Education Agency, with a distinction for Academic Achievement in Science.
Scott J. Bolton is an American theoretical and experimental space physicist. He is an associate vice president of the Southwest Research Institute Space Science and Engineering Division. His research area is planetary sciences with a focus on the giant planets and the origin of the solar system. Previously serving as a member of the Galileo and Cassini–Huygens missions, Bolton became the Principal Investigator of Juno, a New Frontiers program mission to Jupiter which began primary science in 2016.
There are NASA facilities across the United States and around the world. NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC provides overall guidance and political leadership to the agency. There are 10 NASA field centers, which provide leadership for and execution of NASA's work. All other facilities fall under the leadership of at least one of these field centers. Some facilities serve more than one application for historic or administrative reasons. NASA has used or supported various observatories and telescopes, and an example of this is the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. In 2013 a NASA Office of the Inspector General's (OIG) Report recommended a Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) style organization to consolidate NASA's little used facilities. The OIG determined at least 33 of NASA's 155 facilities were underutilized.
Laurie Leshin is an American scientist and academic administrator serving as the 10th Director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and as Vice President and Bren Professor of Geochemistry and Planetary Science at California Institute of Technology. Leshin's research has focused on geochemistry and space science. Leshin previously served as the 16th president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
The Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps is a federal program sponsored by the United States Armed Forces in high schools and also in some middle schools across the United States and at US military bases across the world. The program was originally created as part of the National Defense Act of 1916 and later expanded under the 1964 ROTC Vitalization Act.
The GAVRT Program is a partnership between NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Lewis Center for Educational Research (LCER). Based in California, GAVRT is an acronym for the Goldstone-Apple Valley Radio Telescope and provides a science investigation program for students K through 12. Students learn how to be part of a science team while they are making a real contribution to scientific knowledge by operating and collecting data on current NASA JPL missions to moons and planets in the Solar System.
