NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Open House to Feature 'Camera that Saved Hubble'

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., invites the public to a close-up look at JPL's past, present and future at its annual Open House on Saturday, May 15, and Sunday, May 16, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event, themed "Worlds Beyond," features displays and demonstrations from numerous space missions, and a first look at JPL's recently renovated von Karman Visitor Center.

On special display will be the JPL-built Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, retrieved from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope last year by space-walking astronauts. The instrument, affectionately known as the "Camera that Saved Hubble," is on loan from the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. The camera captured many of Hubble's iconic space images.

Other Open House highlights include: seeing JPL's next spacecraft bound for Mars, Mars Science Laboratory, under construction in the lab's largest "clean room;" life-size rover models in a "Mars" test bed; and JPL's Microdevices Lab, where engineers and scientists use tiny technology to revolutionize space exploration. Visitors can also see the sun through solar-safe telescopes, and learn how NASA instruments help scientists better understand global climate change.

JPL Open House provides a memorable experience for adult and kids,with plenty of hands-on activities, and opportunities to talk with scientists and engineers. Selected locations at Open House will be featured live online on Ustream TV at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasajpl on Sat., May 15, at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., noon and 1 p.m. Pacific time (1, 2, 3 and 4 p.m. Eastern time). Each time slot will feature a new location at the top of each hour.