Patch works: the art of Space Age heraldry

摘要

For most of its storied history, the most visible symbol of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been their famous blue "Meatball" logo. The iconic NASA design by James Modarelli was introduced in 1959 to replace the winged logo of their predecessor agency, NACA. Except for official, government-approved insignia for the Gemini and Apollo manned space programmes, the early NASA space projects such as Explorer, OSO (Orbiting Solar Observatory) and the Ranger and Mariner space probes did not have any identifying insignia. NASA abided by an official policy that did not permit any logos or project names to be displayed on the launch vehicles of the day, except for international cooperative space missions with allied partners. This policy dated back to an edict issued by the original NASA Administrator, T. Keith Glennan, on 27 March 1959. Glennan ordered that only the name UNITED STATES (in bold capital letters) should be painted on American rockets that "were launched for the NASA". This edict also seemed to discourage the use of identifying logos. On the other side of the Cold War, the Soviets did not utilize logos or symbols of any kind, and their rockets were completely devoid of markings for many years.