PASADENA : Caltech to Continue Management of JPL

Caltech has signed a five-year contract to manage the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA’s lead center for solar system exploration.

The contract includes roughly $1 billion annually for JPL operations. Also, Caltech receives a management fee of at least $6 million each year. The fee could increase to $18 million, depending on Caltech’s performance review from NASA.

Caltech has managed the 7,300-employee laboratory since NASA’s inception in 1958.