NASA Logos Through the Years

Brief history of NASA

NASA or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is the U.S.
government agency responsible for leading the nation's explorations of space.
Since it was founded in 1958, NASA has taken to the skies both on and off earth. It
was during the Cold War that NASA was founded, and it was in response to the
U.S rivals in the Soviet Union launching the worlds first satalite - The ‘Sputnik’ -
on October 4th 1957. This became known as the ‘Space Race’

NASA launched its first satelite ‘Explorer 1’ the next January, and this machine
sought to study the planet and its environment
NASA’s next priority was getting a man to the moon. ​There were challenges and
setbacks, such as a fire that killed ​three Apollo 1 astronauts​, but by 1968, the
agency sent astronauts around the moon, with Apollo 8. On ​July 20, 1969​, Neil
Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon, famously declaring,
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

Since the lunar landing, NASA have sent many more ships into space on many
different missions, and currently their focus is both human and robotic exploration
of the wider solar system including the planet Mars.
 The Original NASA Logo
NASA was once called NACA, back in 1957 while the agency was still in its
infancy.
The title of this now forgotten agency was The National Advisory Committee on
Aeronautics.

When in 1959, the NACA was transformed in to the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA), James Modarelli was asked by the executive
secretary of NACA to create a logo for NASA so it could be seen as a
It’s own organisation.

(James Modarelli)

Modarelli came up with this:

 Modarelli was an illustrator of his time, which can be seen in the round shape of
the NASA logo and its colour scheme that reflects the modern America of those
days and the American flag.
While the logo itself represents the efforts and strivings of young NASA in a
brilliant way, it didn’t stand the test of time as these trends and designs became
dated. The idea of the logo was to show the public that the newly-reformed NASA
was to work for the American people and not against them nor in secrecy.
This was somewhat a standard logotype for that period – it perfectly represented
NASA as a space agency, but didn’t show its aspirations for modernism and future.

However, as time went by, the public and many famous design agencies started
voicing their concerns about the logo.
‘Should the logo be a representation of its time or strive to do something more than
that?’
However, as time went by, the public and many of the famous design agencies
have started voicing their concerns about the logo.
Should the logo be a representation of its time or strive to do something more than
that?
Modarelli took this criticism to heart and started working on a more modern,
futuristic take on NASA’s logo, one that will become the staple of the agency in
pop culture for the foreseeable future.
 The Meatball
NASA’s first official insignia was determined, by a design competition among the
agency’s employees, in 1959—a full decade before Armstrong was to step off his
ladder and onto the surface of the moon. The winning entry came from employee
James Modarelli who encorporated planets, stars a cheveron wing - a legendary
concept at the time, and an orbiting spacecraft. ​The red v-shaped vector represents
aeronautics. The circular orbit around the agency's name represents space travel.
This is what it looked like :

This logo was incredibly famous, and after the moon landing it became well known
all over the country. However it was not a practical logo, as it was very hard to
reproduce and the colours were never produced correctly on uniforms. Known
officially as the insignia, NASA’s round logo was not called the “meatball” until
1975. That’s when NASA decided a more modern logo was in order.
 ​​The Worm

It was in 1974 that NASA felt they needed a new brand to catch the eyes of the
people. It was developed under the Federal Design Improvement Program initiated
by the President in 1972. Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn were employed to
design a new logo. They proposed a new futuristic design that subsequently
became known as ‘ The Worm’ for its zigzag design. The design had thick lettering
and the A’s in it were not crossed. This feature of the logo was designed to look
like the nosecones of many rockets.

‘The Worm’ was designed to look very different to the older logo, and when it was
first introduced, it was disliked by many members of staff as well as the general
public, and when it first launched, the old logo “ The Meatball” was requested to
be brought back. It was lacking that classic cartoon effect that was so widely
recognised at the time. It was modern and sharp and easier to reproduce onto
stationary, uniforms and even rockets themselves. The NASA logo itself had to
always be smaller than the American flag.
 The future for NASA’s logo
To this day the rivalry between the ‘worm’ and the ‘meatball’ continues and some
think that the old logo is just too well known to replace and others think that the
new, more modern logo is more suitable for the company.
Rumour has it that NASA are creating a new logo for its 60th anniversary, and
hopefully this logo will be one that everyone agrees on!