JPL visitor center dedicated

Marshall Allen

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE -- The renovated von Karman Visitor Center at

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory was dedicated at a ceremony Friday

night, demonstrating’s JPL’s increased attention to informing the public.

The visitor center is toured by nearly 16,000 people every year,

including 10,000 children on school field trips. In the past, it was a

loose collection of pop-up displays surrounding a 17-foot-tall,

life-sized model of the Galileo spacecraft. It wasn’t carpeted, and the

motif could have been described as “government,” according to Kimberly

Lievense, manager of JPL’s public services office.

The Galileo model is still the focal point, but the old displays are

gone. Galileo is now surrounded by about two dozen museum-like exhibits,

thoughtfully arranged to tell JPL’s story. There’s even a mini-theater

that airs NASA or JPL television, or shows informative videos.

“Most people don’t really know what JPL is -- even in the community a

lot of them don’t know,” Lievense said.

The new visitor center tells the history of JPL and its missions. It’s

set up like a journey through the planets. At each planet, there’s

information about the spacecraft that have visited them, Lievense said.

There’s no way information about all of JPL’s missions could have fit

into the 2,500-square-foot visitor center, she said.

“We hope that it tells enough that it leaves you wanting to know

more,” she said.

Interested visitors can get more information about JPL on its Web

site, she said. The Web address is www.jpl.nasa.gov .

The visitor information center is one part of JPL’s effort to let the

public see what it does with tax dollars, Lievense said. Lievense said

she does’t know how much it cost to renovate the center.

To book a tour of the von Karman Visitor Center, call 354-9314. All

tours must be reserved.