The
Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the
California Institute of Technology (
GALCIT), was a
research institute created in 1926, at first specializing in
aeronautics research. In 1930, Hungarian scientist
Theodore von Kármán accepted the directorship of the lab and emigrated to the United States. Under his leadership, work on
rockets began there in 1936. GALCIT was the first—and from 1936 to 1940 the only—university-based rocket research center. Based on GALCIT's
JATO project at the time, the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory was established under a contract with the United States Army in November 1943.