Caltech could lose control of JPL for the first time

The contract for management and operation of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be opened up to a competitive bidding process for the first time in its history, the space agency announced on Friday.

The action forces Caltech to compete for control of the La Cañada Flintridge institution it has managed since NASA’s inception in 1958.

“The rapid growth of the U.S. space economy indicates there may now be a viable competitive market for programmatic and institutional elements,” NASA said in a statement. “This decision is part of a broader governmentwide and agency effort to find efficiencies, strengthen performance, and drive mission outcomes faster and more affordably.”

In a joint statement, Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum and JPL Director Dave Gallagher said that the announcement came as “no surprise” and that it already had a team in place “to ensure we are positioned for success” in the bidding process.

“Over the course of our nearly seven-decade-long partnership with NASA, Caltech and JPL have led humanity’s exploration and understanding of the universe — and our place within it,” the Pasadena university said. “The ambitions ahead — no less bold than those we have already realized— are ones we are fully prepared to meet.”

The competition for the contract is part of a slate of changes NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced on Friday, including a massive reorganization of the space agency intended “to concentrate resources towards the highest priority objectives in the National Space Policy and liberate the best and brightest from needless bureaucracy and obstacles that impede progress,” Isaacman wrote in a letter to the agency’s roughly 18,000 employees.

JPL was founded by Caltech researchers in 1936, and became part of NASA when the space agency was formed in 1958. Its current 10-year contract with NASA, which is valued at up to $30 billion, runs through Sept. 30, 2028.

Times staff writer Noah Haggerty contributed to this report.