Emergency Website for NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is within the mandatory evacuation zone for the Eaton Fire and is closed to employees and visitors on Wednesday, Jan. 8. The laboratory will remain closed until Monday, Jan 13. Additional updates on the Laboratory’s status will be posted on this site (emergency.jpl.nasa.gov).

Currently, JPL facilities, labs and hardware are secured and protected. Deep Space Network operations, normally conducted at JPL, have been moved offsite to a back-up operations center.

As of Tuesday night, employees were directed to work from home, with only a small number of critical personnel on-site Wednesday morning. Our Protective Services Department is maintaining constant communication with the Eaton Fire emergency command center, and the Laboratory is currently receiving assistance from the LA County Fire Department.

Also on Tuesday night, the mesa above JPL was made available to support firefighting helicopters; however, flights were cancelled due to high winds. The mesa remains available to assist firefighting efforts aimed at protecting nearby neighborhoods and JPL itself.

The safety of our employees is our top priority. We also keep our neighboring communities—many of which are home to our employees and their families—in our thoughts as they endure the challenges and devastation of this fire.