Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory traces its origins to 1936 when graduate students Frank Malina, Jack Parsons, Edward Forman, Qian Xuesen, Weld Arnold, and Apollo M.O. Smith gathered in the Arroyo Seco riverbed north of Pasadena under advisor Theodore von Kármán.
On the 31st of January 1958 the Jet Propulsion Laboratory launched Explorer 1 which marked America's first satellite launch and signaled a new era for both JPL and the United States in space exploration.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 which launched in 1977 to explore Jupiter Saturn Uranus and Neptune while also managing Galileo Juno Cassini-Huygens OSIRIS-REx and Europa Clipper missions.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory operates under a unique partnership between California Institute of Technology and National Aeronautics and Space Administration since December 1958 with fiscal year 2022 budget reaching approximately two point four billion dollars.
In January 2025 the Jet Propulsion Laboratory facility closed and evacuated due to the Eaton Fire raging nearby Pasadena Altadena towns though no structural damage was sustained.