Work Starts on New Lab at JPL

Construction has begun on the $12.2-million, 98,000-square-foot Earth and Space Science Laboratory at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s primary facility in Pasadena.

Designed by Leo A. Daly, planners, architects, engineers of Los Angeles, the three-story multipurpose laboratory and office facility is expected to be completed by Shirley Brothers of Pasadena in December, 1986.

The new laboratory will house four major program groups staffed by 240 scientific, engineering and support personnel. The four groups--Radar, Oceans, IPTF (Integrated Parts Testing Facility) and AMP (Advanced Microelectronics Program)--will support JPL’s assigned responsibility for NASA deep-space scientific exploration, tracking/data acquisition and spacecraft development.

Joseph Vaccaro, vice president of Leo A. Daly, said, “The lab’s first floor will hold optoelectronics and failure-analysis test labs requiring vibration-isolated floor slabs, an oceanographic lab with an 8-foot-wide by 60-foot-long tank, plus thermal and radiation test labs.” Test and computer labs will be on the second and third floors along with technical support space.