They say the early bird gets the worm, so why does Orion have NASA's old-school logo?
- Reference: 1620995995
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/05/14/orion_worm_logo/
- Source link:
The logo had already been stuck on the underside of the CMA last year, but sticking it on the side will ensure it is visible once the Orion spacecraft and its European-built service module are stacked atop the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and wheeled out to Kennedy's pad 39B.
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NASA logo on Orion module (NASA/Glenn Benson)
The worm also adorns the solid rocket boosters of the SLS just in case, you know, you were in any doubt as to the operator. Look carefully, and you'll [3]also be able to spot the ESA logo as well as NASA's original "meatball".
Things are trundling forward for NASA's hugely delayed and hugely overbudget Moon rocket. The Orion spacecraft and the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) are currently being fuelled and serviced ahead of Orion's integration with its launch abort system and the ICPS's move to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for stacking on the mobile launcher.
The Core Stage of the SLS [4]finally arrived , via barge, at Kennedy Space Center late last month after completing the Green Run tests at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The Core Stage is to be hoisted vertical and attached to the solid rocket boosters already stacked atop the mobile launcher within the VAB.
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The "Worm" logo itself was created in the 1970s, as the Apollo era came to an end, and was retired in 1992. It famously made a return in 2020 as the agency resumed human spaceflight from US soil courtesy of SpaceX. Unlike NASA's SLS, the Falcon 9 booster it adorned has seen repeated reuse by SpaceX. The SLS, on the other hand, will be dumping its ex-Space Shuttle engines into the ocean.
As for a launch date, NASA continues to stick to 2021, possibly November, although a slip to 2022 seems likely based on past form. As for the 2024 goal to land humans on the Moon? Probably best not talk about it too much these days [7]lest the lawyers hear . ®
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[1] https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/2021/05/13/orion-spacecraft-adorned-with-iconic-nasa-worm-logo/
[2] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/05/14/nasawormorion.jpg
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/24/sls_stickers_delay/
[4] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/barging-in-artemis-i-core-stage-arrives-at-kennedy
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YJ6emZT998QJm72aAPlHAgAAAAQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YJ6emZT998QJm72aAPlHAgAAAAQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/04/nasa_moon_contract/
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Meatball?
I once worked with some folks at Ames Research Center and they called it the "vector" logo.
I prefer the worm logo. Even though it was designed over 40 years ago, it seems more futuristic than the "meatball" they've been using more recently. I know the "meatball" is actually their original logo, but it always reminds me NASA is a military organisation. I know it's function is largely military (and therefore classified), but I've never thought that Logo fit with NASA as a Scientific/Exploration organisation.
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Apollo era
The Apollo program consumed about 2.5% of the USA GDP for 10 years
Nasa now probably consumes 2.5% of the USA PowerPoint resources to promulgate changes in logo, mission statement, strategic objectives and national goals.
They may still have a copy of Keeble space Program somewhere
Re: Apollo era
Perseverence, Ingenuity and lots of other projects would disagree with your implication that NASA can't remember how to do space.
Re: Apollo era
JPL can do science.
Nasa can do selling manned moon missions to boomers in congress that remember Apollo 11 while selling "Saturn V - the revenge" to Boeing
Re: Apollo era
> JPL can do science.
JPL is NASA. What's your point again?
Re: Apollo era
NASA is a little more than just the Apollo program! Or even the whole space program, from Mercury to the ISS...
You'd be astonished by the number of NASA technologies you use in your daily life, and let's not mention aeronautics (the whole slew of experimental "X" rocket planes, first to go faster than the speed of sound, were built by NACA, the ancestor of NASA).
NASA, in one way or another, has contributed to a lot of America's star technological achievements and firsts. It might not be as agile as some private companies, never been, but describing it as an obsolete fat cat is ungrateful at best.
If you want to get real technical, the "worm" is their new logo. The globe logo is the first one they used.