JPL is the result of a Caltech graduate student’s research into rocket propulsion in the late 1930s. Funded by the U. S. Army during and after World War II, the Laboratory developed the U.S.’s first guided ballistic missile, the Corporal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MGM-5_Corporal

The MGM-5 Corporal missile was an American short-range, nuclear-armed tactical surface-to-surface ballistic missile. It was the first guided weapon authorized by the United States to carry a nuclear warhead.[i] A guided tactical ballistic missile, the Corporal could deliver either a nuclear fission, high-explosive, fragmentation or chemical warhead up to a range of 75 nautical miles (139 km).

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago

JPL is not a NASA center. It's a non-profit lab for government support. People at NASA like space flight and science. Killing people is not the spirit at any NASA center.