NASA Is Rethinking Who Will Run JPL
Keith’s note: this RFI was posted on 3 July 2025: Follow-on for the Operation and Maintenance of the NASA Federally Funded Research and Development Center at Jet Propulsion Laboratory: “The NASA Office of JPL Management and Oversight (NOJMO) is hereby requesting information from potential sources to operate and manage NASA’s Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for the purpose of effectively meeting special research and development needs.” … “A NOJMO FFRDC Industry Engagement Day will be held on Tuesday, July 29th in the Glennan Assembly Room located inside NASA HQ at 300 E St. SW in Washington, D.C. This event is intended to inform potential sources about the Government’s FFRDC requirements and to promote an exchange of information between industry and the Government.” More information below.
THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. NO PROPOSALS ARE TO BE SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO THIS NOTICE.
This notice is issued by the NASA/NOJMO to solicit responses from interested parties. This document is for information and planning purposes and to allow industry the opportunity to verify reasonableness and feasibility of the requirement, as well as promote competition.
The NASA Office of JPL Management and Oversight (NOJMO) is hereby requesting information from potential sources to operate and manage NASA’s Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for the purpose of effectively meeting special research and development needs. FFRDCs are operated, managed, and/or administered by either a university or consortium of universities, other not-for-profit or nonprofit organization, or an industrial firm, as an autonomous organization or as an identifiable separate operating unit of a parent organization. FFRDCs enable agencies to use private sector resources to accomplish tasks that are integral to the mission and operation of the sponsoring agency.
INDUSTRY ENGAGEMENT DAY
NASA will be hosting an Industry Engagement Day. This event is intended to inform potential sources about the Government’s FFRDC requirements and to promote an exchange of information between industry and the Government.
Attendance is limited to no more than four (4) representatives per potential source to include any teaming arrangements. Please ensure all representatives register by the RSVP deadline.
Date: July 29, 2025
Time: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM EDT
Location: NASA Headquarters, 300 E St SW, Washington, DC 20546 – James Webb Auditorium
RSVP Deadline: July 18, 2025, at 2:00 PM EDT
See Registration Link below.
See the attachment titled “NASA FFRDC Sources Sought” for additional information.
9 responses to “NASA Is Rethinking Who Will Run JPL”
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So CalTech won’t run JPL anymore?
If this is really about blocking out CalTech, no self respecting organization should respond to this. It would be the equivalent of a scab crossing a picket line. (I don’t work for JPL or CalTech, but as a member of the space community, this is ridiculous)
What makes JPL unique is the culture. A culture that is sourced right out of CalTech. Taking JPL away from CalTech will destroy a national treasure.
This will not “destroy a national treasure,” it will end a monopoly and open the management and operations up to fair competition. There are lots of entities to include other universities that can do this. Stop gaslighting every single change that you don’t like.
Monopoly? It’s not like Caltech is unfairly squashing competition by founding and managing JPL since 1936. You fundamentally misunderstand what JPL is as an FFRDC. You have also misused the term “gaslighting.” In the words of Inigo Montoya, “I do not think it means what you think it does.”
As a JPLer, I agree that having a different organization take on management of the laboratory would be the equivalent of a corporate hostile takeover. Much of what makes JPL special would be changed forever (i.e., “national treasure lost”). I don’t think the Caltech connection is what’s essential to JPL’s uniqueness, so much as the havoc that changing the operating system would wreak. The situation is already fragile. Awarding the prime contract to some non-Caltech actor would forever change the lab. #disagreementisnotgaslighting
Bullcrap.
This is about your orange god punishing a blue state. A blind man can see this.
When management of Los Alamos National Laboratory was pulled from University of California in 2003, it worked out badly for everyone. Employees benefits degraded, lab culture changed for the worse and the government ended up paying a higher fee.
I’m horrified that they would do this to another lab.
Is this a real concern, or some sort of “every N years” formality?
So, a little more context after talking with folks at JPL. Apparently this is a fairly normal part of the process for negotiating the JPL prime contract. It is always, in effect, competed. It just has always made the best sense not to unseat Caltech from its historical role. So this is not wildly abnormal. The timing is certainly uncomfortable, given the science budget and loss of MSR. Plus it doesn’t normally get picked up by media. So it’s not that it couldn’t result in some new entity managing the lab, but it’s not super likely.