NASA's "worm" logo is back

Last seen in 1992 in an official sense, NASA will bring back the popular "worm" logo for the DM-2 launch in late May, 2020. NASA stated they were uncertain of how and where the logo will be used on the launch vehicle,but this isn't going to be a one time only deal. “There’s a good chance you’ll see the logo featured in other official ways on this mission and in the future.” NASA officails stated.

In 2015 kickstarter campaign by Pentagram designers Hamish Smyth and Jesse Reed initiated a reprinting of Danne & Blackburn’s 1975 NASA Graphics Standards Manual. Since then the logo has been seen on merchandise ranging from shirts to mugs around the world, slowly making a come back and an icon once again.

Photo Credit: SpaceX

Originally designed by Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn of the New York firm Danne & Blackburn in 1975 in response to many feeling the NASA meatball logo was too complicated of a metaphor, and difficult to reproduce. The logo was thought to be more universal and versatile. though not retired the original meatball was only seen in limited contexts.

Love for the worm only lasted around a decade and then was retired itself at the the suggestion of then Langley Research Center director Paul F. Holloway, who had taken complaints from employees, and the public about the logo. In May of 1992 the logo was killed and the meatball reinstated as the official NASA logo by then administrator Daniel S. Goldin.

“The retro, modern design of the agency’s logo will help capture the excitement of a new, modern era of human spaceflight,” NASA said. DM-2 is the return of human space flight from American soil. Launching atop a Flacon 9 rocket two astronauts, Bob Behnken, and Doug Hurley will fly to the International Spac Station in late may of this year, proving launch Capabilities of SpaceX to handle human space flight.