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NASA logo (worm)

NASA seal

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) logo has three official designs, although one of them (the "worm") has been retired from official use since 1992. The three logos include the NASA insignia (also known as the meatball), the NASA logo (also known as the worm), and the NASA seal.^[1]^[2]^[3]

[edit] History

The NASA logo dates back to 1959, when the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) metamorphosed into an agency that would advance both space and aeronautics: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

After a NASA Lewis Research Center illustrator's design was chosen for the new agency's official seal, the head of Lewis' Research Reports Division, James Modarelli, was asked by the executive secretary of NASA to design a logo that could be used for less formal purposes. Modarelli simplified the seal, leaving only the white stars and orbital path on a round field of blue with a red vector. Then he added white N-A-S-A lettering.

In the NASA insignia design, the sphere represents a planet, the stars represent space, the red chevron, in the alternate shape of the constellation Andromeda, is a wing representing aeronautics (the latest design in hypersonic wings at the time the logo was developed). Then there is the orbiting spacecraft going around the wing. Although known officially as the insignia, NASA's round logo was not nicknamed the "meatball" until 1975, when NASA decided a more modern logo was in order and switched to the NASA logo, nicknamed the "worm," a red, stylized rendering of the letters N-A-S-A.

The NASA logo (worm) has been retired from official use since 1992 and the design is now reserved for special use (such as for commercial merchandising purposes) and must be approved by the Visual Identity Coordinator at NASA Headquarters.

In 1992, Administrator Daniel Goldin brought NASA's insignia back from retirement to invoke memories of the one-giant-leap-for-mankind glory days of Apollo and to show that "the magic is back at NASA."

The original design and now official NASA Seal is to be reserved for use in connection with the NASA Administrator, such as for award presentations, formal events and activities which are ceremonial or traditional in nature. According to NASA Headquarters, the Seal should never be used with the NASA Insignia, since the two elements are intended for different purposes and are visually incompatible when seen side by side.

Like most NASA images, the "meatball" insignia, the "worm" logo and the NASA seal are in the public domain. However, their usage is restricted under Code of Federal Regulations 14 CFR 1221.^[4] These NASA emblems should be reproduced only from original reproduction proofs, transparencies, or computer files available from NASA Headquarters.^[5]

This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Government document "http://history.nasa.gov/meatball.htm".