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This 1963 photo shows a small metal dish being fabricated on a Bullard Horizontal Boring Mill, operated by machinist Art Bishop in the JPL Machine Shop. The Fabrication Services Division was responsible for machining spacecraft parts at a time when most of the work was done in-house at JPL.

When this photo was taken, the machine shop had just recently moved from building 103 to its new home in building 170. Nearly four decades later, it is still located in the same building, and various groups in the Mechanical Prototype and Hardware Fabrication Section still create parts for JPL spacecraft and instruments under development, although the level of technology has increased greatly. There are few manual machines left -- most of them are now guided by computer programs. The information used by data bases that generate drawings is also used to position the cutters with great precision.

For more information about the history of JPL, please contact the JPL Archives.