An institution in Pasadena, California, operated by the California Institute of Technology Caltech in support of programmes of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA and of other agencies. It is distinguished as the primary facility in the USA for the development and operation of interplanetary space probes. Activities managed by JPL have included the Viking, Voyager, Galileo and Magellan projects. Although often referred to as a NASA centre, JPL employees are not US government civil servants, unlike, for example, those who work at the Goddard Space Flight Center and similar establishments that are formally part of NASA.