The fires that spread destruction across the Los Angeles region this week and killed at least 11 people have spared two famed scientific facilities: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which has spearheaded planetary missions and astronomy efforts, and the historic Mount Wilson Observatory. While the Eaton blaze that has destroyed nearly 14,000 acres and 7000 buildings in Altadena and Pasadena stayed an appreciable distance away from JPL, flames from that fire continued to climb towards Mount Wilson until eventually stopping at the edge of the observatory’s grounds on 9 January.

“Thanks to the efforts of our firefighters and observatory staff, no buildings or infrastructure have been destroyed” at these facilities, said Anthony Marrone, the LA county fire chief, in a press briefing this afternoon. Still, JPL director Laura Leshin said on X that more than 150 of her staff have lost their homes to fire. And some Mount Wilson employee have evacuated and don’t know when they can return. “For us, the story is about our employees, and not about the facility” says Veronica McGregor, a spokesperson for JPL.

In preparation for the Eaton fire, one of six scattered across Los Angeles, JPL moved operations of its Deep Space Network, an international network that commands and communicates with space-based missions, to a back-up operations center and instructed all employees to work from home.