Those loyal to the old design were offended, and a rivalry between the “meatball” and the “worm” began. He says the redesign was kept secret until letters were sent to every center director… on their new stationery. The NASA worm (image via Galaxy Wire)ġ7 years later, despite its winning the prestigious “Award of Design Excellence” by The Presidential Design Awards, NASA scrapped the Danne and Blackburn design and re-instated the “meatball.” The worm on Star Trek (image via Ex Astris Scientia)ĭanne thinks this was at least partly due to how NASA chose to introduce the new logo to its various internal agencies in the first place. Still, the new program was approved and implemented. Low: “Well, yes, the cross stroke is gone from the letter A.”įletcher: (long pause) “I just don’t feel we are getting our money’s worth!” NASA worm logoĭanne remembers NASA’s administrator, Dr James Fletcher, and deputy administrator, Dr George Low, having the following exchange:įletcher: “I’m simply not comfortable with those letters, something is missing.” During the first design presentation, the proposed system was met with some resistance. Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn were hired to replace the complex meatball with a stripped-down, modernist interpretation - dubbed the worm - where even the cross stroke of the A’s were removed. That’s when NASA decided a more modern logo was in order. Known officially as the insignia, NASA’s round logo was not called the “meatball” until 1975. In the “meatball” design, the sphere represents a planet, the stars represent space, the red chevron is a wing representing aeronautics (the latest design in hypersonic wings at the time the logo was developed), and then there is an orbiting spacecraft going around the wing. Mr Modarelli simplified the seal, leaving only the white stars and orbital path on a round field of blue with a red airfoil. The illustrator’s design before simplification. 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 NACA to design a NASA logo that could be used for less formal purposes.
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