Public Event at Caltech Marks 75th Anniversary of JPL Rocket Tests

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 PHONE: 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Priscilla Vega 818-354-1357
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Priscilla.r.vega@jpl.nasa.gov

News release: 2011-318 Oct. 11, 2011

Public Event at Caltech Marks 75th Anniversary of JPL Rocket Tests

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-318&cid=release_2011-318

PASADENA, Calif. -- The 75th anniversary of the first rocket experiments at the site that became
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will be celebrated with a special free, public
screening of the new documentary, "The American Rocketeer" at the California Institute of
Technology's Beckman Auditorium on Tuesday, Oct. 25 at 8 p.m. This never-before-seen film is
one installment in a three-part documentary series chronicling the early history of JPL. All three
installments will air on KCET Los Angeles in November.

On Halloween day in 1936, a group of Caltech students, led by Frank Malina, conducted the first
stand-up rocket engine test in a dirt gulch known to the residents of Pasadena as the Arroyo. Little
did they know that this day would go down in history as the beginning of what is now JPL, the
world's leading center for robotic exploration of the solar system and beyond. The 90-minute
episode takes viewers on a journey through Malina's life using personal letters, video footage,
drawings and paintings to reveal an extraordinary story of how JPL came to be.

"This is a very personal story about a person few even know," said Blaine Baggett, JPL's director of
communications and education. "Yet Malina was a major pioneer in American rocketry. This film
attempts both to shed light on his important contributions, while revealing the reasons why he has
been forgotten. The time is long since past that the public should know the name Frank Malina."

The Malina story and the other two episodes in the series were produced, written and directed by
Baggett, a national Emmy-award winning documentarian.

Seating at the public screening of "The American Rocketeer" is first-come, first-served. Caltech's
Beckman Auditorium is located at 332 South Michigan Avenue in Pasadena (Michigan Avenue
south of Del Mar Boulevard). For directions and parking information, please visit:
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~ope/techinfo/beckman.shtml .

The series, collectively called "Beginnings of the Space Age," will make its television premiere on
KCET over three evenings, as follows: "The American Rocketeer" on Nov. 3 at 9 p.m.; "Explorer
1" on Nov. 10 at 9 p.m.; and "Destination Moon" on Nov. 17 at 9 p.m.

Caltech manages JPL for NASA. More information about JPL is online at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov .
Information on how to follow us via social media, including Facebook and Twitter, is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/social .
-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=mrLUJ1PHJnKWKeL&s=eeJQKPOpEaICLOPvHoE&m=hjKXKaOPKlJUKeL

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=puJ0KaMTLqJ3IoK&s=eeJQKPOpEaICLOPvHoE&m=hjKXKaOPKlJUKeL