by One of the most famous logos in the world – and certainly the most traveled by – is 65 years old.
Since its announcement on July 15, 1959, the emblem representing NASA, or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has adorned t-shirts and space suits, has been reproduced as high as 10 stories and has reached the surfaces of the moon and Mars. The red, white and blue logo is NASA’s oldest official identifier, even predating the agency’s formal seal.
Designed by James Modarelli at the time, head of the research reports division at NASA’s Lewis Research Center (today’s Glenn Research Center) in Cleveland, Ohio, the NASA emblem consists of a circle symbolizing space; supersonic wing for aviation; and spacecraft in orbit. The logo reads “NASA” in bold letters across its center.
“In celebrating the legacy of this iconic logo, we recognize the essential contributions from all career areas involved in carrying out the agency’s missions,” Kristen Parker, Glenn’s director of communications, said in a statement. “NASA doesn’t just have rocket scientists here.”
Modarelli created the logo at the request of NASA’s first administrator, Keith Glennan, using elements from his design for the agency’s seal. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an executive order authorizing the seal in November 1959, around the same time that the first orders from NASA for stationery, lapel pins and decals with the Modarelli logo were completed and Modarelli, himself, was transferred to NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC to be the exhibition director. (Modarelli later returned to Lewis [Glenn] in 1961.)
One of the first public appearances of the new logo was at the April 1959 press conference when NASA introduced its original Mercury astronauts. The hand-painted sign, which hung from the curtains behind the seven men, reversed the direction of the spacecraft in its orbit and had less prominent star fields than the background of the sign would have obscured.
For 15 years, NASA put the Modarelli logo on its air and spacecraft; on its construction walls and hangar roofs; on ground astronauts and flight equipment; and everywhere and in everything else that the agency wanted to identify as its own. Then in 1974, as part of the government’s effort to modernize the look of all US federal agencies, NASA replaced Modarelli’s artwork with a slimmer logotype created by New York design firm partners Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn.
To distinguish between the old and the new, the Modarelli logo was given the name “meatball” (as opposed to “Danne and Blackburn’s worm”), because of some feeling that it was messy, like a meatball on top of a bowl of spaghetti.
Although no longer official and excluded from the standard graphics manual that mandated the use of the worm, the meatball continued to be used within the agency. Perhaps most impressively, the garments worn by NASA’s new space shuttle astronauts for training and launch. Beginning with the STS-7 crew in 1983, the powder blue flight suits and coveralls featured embroidered worms and meatball patches.
Then in 1992, NASA Administrator Dan Goldin unilaterally decided to ditch the worm and just use the meatball as a way to revive excitement among the workforce. This led to the placement of the Modarelli logo on the left wings of the space shuttle orbiters, to the exterior of the US “Destiny” laboratory on the International Space Station and, at 110 feet by 132 feet (34 by 40 metres), to great. a wall outside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The first rover to orbit a planet other than Earth, NASA’s Mars Pathfinder “Sojourner” did so with the meatball attached to its body, just as the first astronauts who walked on the moon wore nearly 30 years earlier.
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The logo was also adopted by the public, and Hollywood studios applied to use it in their feature films; Wearing Snoopy as NASA’s ongoing safety and STEM mascot; making Lego the first badge to adorn its minifigures (other than fictional logos created by the toy company).
“The NASA brand elements are very popular,” said Aimee Crane, merchandising and branding clearance manager for NASA. “Each year, the agency receives requests to merchandise more than 10,000 NASA-inspired items.”
For several years and continuing today into the future, the meatball has retained its status as the official symbol of NASA, but is now used alongside the worm logo. Together they will launch with the first astronauts to return to the moon and those who will eventually go on to explore Mars as part of NASA’s Artemis program.
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