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It’s about as in-demand as World Cup or Olympics tickets but with only a single zero in its price tag: The free open house at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is returning this fall.
Back for the first time since 2023, the overwhelmingly popular Pasadena-area tradition will once again welcome space-curious Angelenos on October 10 and 11 to step inside mission control and a host of fabrication facilities at the Caltech-managed command center for satellites and Mars rover missions.
Tucked into the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, the robotic research lab drew increasingly Disneyland-level crowds to its two-day open house over the years, which prompted a shift to (free) timed ticket admission about a decade ago. That’ll be the case once again for 2026, when tickets for “Explore JPL” become available on Saturday, August 29 at 9am. You’ll be limited to five tickets and you must select a specific time slot and name each attendee when you reserve them (IDs will be checked at the door). Expect slots to be fully booked within 10 or 15 minutes.
The rocket propulsion lab was founded back in 1936 and oversaw the launch of the United States’ first satellite, and since then its Pasadena–meets–La Cañada Flintridge campus has overseen the conception and management of multiple Mars rovers (Perseverance, Curiosity, Pathfinder) and space probes (Voyager 1 and 2). During the annual open house, you can step inside of the operations facility where all of these missions are monitored, peer into the assembly facility wear they come together, poke around the machine shop and learn all about cutting-edge robotics research.
“Explore JPL” (formerly “A Ticket to Explore JPL” and simply “JPL Open House” before that) has mostly been on hiatus in recent years. After pausing for the pandemic, it returned in 2023 but hasn’t made an appearance since then. Meanwhile, the lab itself has faced funding shortfalls and significant layoffs amid federal budget cuts. More recently, NASA announced that, for the first time ever, founder and longtime steward Caltech would need to compete to extend its management contract when its current agreement ends in 2028.
If you strike out with tickets for “Explore JPL,” the lab does offer a limited number of reservations for group and individual tours, which are released a month at a time. Either way, I always recommend to dress for sun exposure—it can get hot on the campus, especially if you’re stuck waiting in line—and to wear comfy shoes.