Political play or budget fix? Competition for JPL's management comes at a fraught moment

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Weeks after Trump administration officials announced that management of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory would open to competitive bidding for the first time, questions remain as to why Caltech could lose control of the lab its researchers founded in 1936.On one hand, observers note, high-profile delays and cost overruns on significant recent JPL projects earned sharp criticism from NASA even before the 2024 presidential election.On the other, the second Trump administration’s record of squeezing scientific funding and attacking institutions in Democrat-led states make it difficult to consider any action as separate from the charged political atmosphere, analysts say.“My first instinct is that this [competition] isn’t necessarily a bad thing.It’s not written in stone that Caltech must run JPL, and it wouldn’t be the worst thing to have some competition for running the place,” said Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at the nonprofit Planetary Society.

Science & Medicine The action forces Caltech to compete for control of the La Cañada Flintridge institution it has managed since NASA’s inception in 1958.“That said, that requires this contract evaluation to be fair and unbiased, and this administration has no credibility in such things,” he added.“The responsibility is on NASA to earn the trust and ensure such an evaluation is open and free from political meddling.

That’s almost impossible.”JPL became part of NASA when the space agency was formed in 1958, and Caltech has been awarded the contract to run the institution outright ever since.Its current 10-year contract with NASA, which is valued at up to $30 billion, runs through Sept.30, 2028.NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced the competition on May 22 as part of a slate of sweeping organizational changes at the space agency.“When you step back, it is worth considering how many additional m...