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Reid Wiseman, who just traveled farther from Earth than any human in history, is bringing his experience to lead NASA's legendary robotics center. The astronaut who commanded the historic Artemis II lunar mission starts as deputy director of JPL this November.
What started with rocket tests in a dry riverbed 90 years ago became the birthplace of America's space exploration. Now NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is launching missions that will protect Earth, map Mars ice with helicopters, and hunt dangerous asteroids.
When a rover lands on Mars, JPL engineers shift their entire lives to a 24-hour-39-minute Martian day, eating breakfast at midnight and working while neighbors sleep. It's one of the strangest workplace conditions in modern science, and families have embraced the challenge together.