Support for LAist comes from
Local and national news, NPR, things to do, food recommendations and guides to Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire
Stay Connected
Listen

Share This

This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

Arts and Entertainment

Videos: BB-8 Hangs With His Robot Friends At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.

BB-8 visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge this week to chill with all the other cool space robots. This was an appropriate stop for BB-8—the cutest new character in the latest Star Wars films—given that JPL is NASA's center for robotic exploration of other worlds.

BB-8 was looking a little dusty—I suspect it's pretty tough to get clean after a visit to the planet Jakku. But the folks at NASA gave him a credential, and invited him into the clean room where engineers build robots and prepare them for space exploration. BB-8 posed for photos with some of the models for NASA's missions to Mars and Jupiter.

Here is BB-8 getting credentialed:

You never know who you will bump into on the JPL campus (and there are signs warning you to be on the lookout):

Support for LAist comes from

BB-8 was starstruck when he came face-to-face model of Curiosity, the rover that touched down on Mars in 2012:

And here he is hanging out with a model of Juno, which is expected to arrive at Jupiter this summer:

Where are you off to next, BB-8?

Why, watching NASA's 7 Minutes Of Terror, a video depicting the harrowing touchdown of the Curiosity on Mars. We don't speak droid, but we think it liked it!

As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.

Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.

We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.

No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.

Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.

Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.

Chip in now to fund your local journalism
A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right
(
LAist
)

Trending on LAist