Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is located primarily in La Cañada Flintridge, California, though it uses a Pasadena mailing address at 4800 Oak Grove Drive. The 168-acre campus is owned by the U.S. federal government and managed by Caltech.
JPL traces its origins to 1936, when Caltech graduate students Frank Malina, Qian Xuesen, Weld Arnold, and Apollo M. O. Smith, along with Jack Parsons and Edward S. Forman, began rocket experiments in the Arroyo Seco under the guidance of Theodore von Kármán. The laboratory formally took that name in November 1943.
JPL was transferred from the U.S. Army to the newly formed NASA in December 1958. It is owned and sponsored by NASA but administered and managed by Caltech under a contract that runs through September 2028.
JPL has managed missions including the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, the Mars rovers Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance, the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, the Juno spacecraft at Jupiter, and the Europa Clipper, which launched in 2024. It also operates the NASA Deep Space Network.
The tradition began during the 1960s Ranger program, when years of mission failures were followed by the first successful Ranger Moon impact after someone distributed peanuts to relieve tension in the room. The staff credited the peanuts as good luck, and JPL engineers have eaten them before launches, orbital insertions, and landings ever since.
In January 2025, JPL was closed and evacuated due to the Eaton Fire burning in nearby Pasadena and Altadena. Operations including the Deep Space Network were relocated offsite. The facility itself sustained minor wind damage but was not destroyed by fire, though numerous employees lost their homes.