NASA competes the JPL operating contract for the first time in nearly 70 years
From the Space digest for Oct 31, 2026
What happened: NASA is competing the contract to operate the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the first time in nearly 70 years, per a Forbes analysis of the arrangement that also asks what universities actually do for the space program. The lab supplies its own backstory this week — JPL turns 90, tracing its origin to a Halloween rocket test in a Pasadena creek bed in 1936, out of which grew the laboratory NASA runs today.
What's genuinely new: The competed contract itself — the JPL operating arrangement hasn't been put up for bid in almost seven decades — with the Forbes piece treating that competition as a lens on whether universities still fit the space program's needs. No bidders, timeline or award date appears in the available reporting, and no second outlet's confirmation is in the fetched coverage yet.
Watch: the named bidders and the procurement timeline, any NASA statement on the competition, and how the award question lands as JPL turns 90.