JPL’s free open house returns Oct. 10–11 for the first time since 2023.
For one weekend in October, the machinery behind Voyager, Galileo, and the Perseverance rover comes out from behind the fence.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena is holding Explore JPL, a free two-day open house, for the first time since 2023 — and for the first time ever in a fall slot.
It’s also the lab’s 90th anniversary, which means the doors swinging open this time carry a little more weight than usual. One thing up front: the free tickets are already gone, claimed within the same 10-to-15-minute window JPL has seen in past years, but that’s not the end of the story for Angelenos hoping to get in.
What’s Actually Behind the Fence
JPL isn’t a museum dressed up as a lab; it’s a working command center at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, and Explore JPL is built around four themed areas: Missions That Changed the World, Moon to Mars, In Flight, and Makerspace.
The single biggest draw is the Space Flight Operations Facility, a National Historic Landmark where engineers talk to spacecraft billions of miles from Earth — the room, more or less, where “Houston, we have a problem” energy lives when the mission isn’t Apollo. Visitors also get into the Spacecraft Assembly Facility and Machine Shop, where components for actual flight hardware get built, plus the Microdevices Laboratory, where JPL engineers miniaturize the technology going into future missions.
The full-scale models of Perseverance, Voyager, and Galileo on display are as close as most people will ever get to hardware that’s either already left the solar system or is currently parked on Mars.
Tickets Are Gone — Here’s What’s Still Open
The free timed-entry tickets were released August 29 and were fully reserved within about 15 minutes, per JPL’s own event page.
If you didn’t get one, you’re not entirely out of luck: JPL’s site notes that cancellations can free up slots, so it’s worth checking back on the official ticket page in the days before the event. For anyone shut out entirely, JPL also runs a limited virtual tour and separate weekday group and individual tours, released a month at a time — a lower-key but real way to see the lab outside the open-house crush.
Why This Year Feels Different
This isn’t just a return after a three-year gap — JPL has weighed a roughly 25% workforce reduction since December 2023 across four rounds of layoffs, and in May 2026 NASA opened the lab’s management contract, long held by Caltech, to competitive bidding for the first time in JPL’s history. None of that changes what’s on view October 10 and 11, but it’s part of why this particular reopening reads as more than routine programming — a 90-year-old institution inviting the public in during a stretch when its own future is genuinely unsettled.
Can I still get tickets to Explore JPL 2026? All tickets were claimed shortly after the August 29 release. Check JPL’s official Explore JPL page for cancellation availability closer to the event date.
What can I see if I don’t have a ticket? JPL offers a virtual tour and periodically releases separate weekday tour reservations for individuals and small groups.
What are the dates and hours? Saturday and Sunday, October 10–11, 2026, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, at 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena.
Even sold out, Explore JPL is worth watching — both for the cancellation slots and for what it says about a lab marking 90 years while navigating real uncertainty about its next chapter.
