NASA Logos
Published on Oct 1, 2008 at 4:04 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under NASA.
On July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law. That piece of legislation dissolved the old National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and transferred the assets of that agency, along with those of several Army facilities, to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA). But, you can’t just start and stop massive government agencies overnight. So, NASA did not begin operations until October 1, 1958. That is 50 years ago, today. Happy Birthday, NASA! Since that time, NASA has evolved into a premier space agency. Everyone in the civilized world has heard of NASA and knows at least some of what the agency does. Getting anything that you do associated with NASA is generally a good marketing plan, because the space agency is quite well respected by the public. The space part of the agency gets all the attention, of course, but NASA also does plenty of aeronautics.
The NASA seal, seen above, is the official emblem for the agency. However, it is quite complex and difficult to reproduce. So, a simpler version of the seal was developed, and that is the more commonly recognized blue NASA insignia, which dates back to 1959. 
The insignia is easier to reproduce and so is more commonly used. It is instantly recognized as identifying NASA. The blue is the sky, with stars in the background. The partial oval in the middle represents an orbiting body (on the seal, it is clear that it is orbiting Earth) and the red swish is a stylized representation of what was then the latest design in supersonic wing designs.
However, by the 1970’s, some felt that the old NASA logo looked a bit old fashioned and did not fit in as well with the culture of the times. So, a new logo was developed. The new logo was stylized curved red letters spelling out NASA. At once, there was debate over whether the new logo or the old one was best. 
The old round logo became known as the “meatball” logo and the new one as the “worms” logo. A lot of people liked the new logo because it looked more modern. A lot of people hated the new logo, thinking that it looked silly. They preferred the old logo. The debate was settled though by former NASA administrator Daniel Goldin, who apparently really disliked the worm logo. So, in 1992, he brought the meatball back from retirement, ending the official use of the worms after nearly twenty years. Now, the worms are only used in special circumstances, primarily for souvenirs for the public. The NASA seal, itself, is seldom used except by NASA headquarters for official presentations and publications. The meatball logo is used for everything else. Personally, I like the meatball, and I am glad that it was returned to active use.
It is a good thing that I don’t actually work for NASA, because it is actually against NASA policy to use all three logos together as I have done illustrating this post. But, I don’t really think that they’d mind, since I am explaining how these logos work. And, with everyone else today blogging about NASA itself, I didn’t have anything else useful to add. I wanted to say something other than just Happy Birthday to NASA, so I decided to write about the emblems used to signify NASA.
-Astroprof
Image Credit: NASA
Carnival of Space: October 2, 2008 « Alice’s Astro Info on October 2, 2008 at 2:58 pm: 1
[…] – Research the history of the NASA meatball and worm with Astroprof this week, in celebration of NASA’s 50th […]