Origins of NASA Names

NASA SP-4402 in the NASA History Series, published by the Scientific and Technical Information Office, Washington, D.C., 1976. Foreword by Monte D. Wright, Director of the NASA History Office, dated June 1975. The authors’ preface credits Johnson Space Center Historian James M. Grimwood with proposing the compilation, and explains that names drew on mythology, legend, straightforward mission description (often yielding acronyms, as with TIROS for “Television and Infra-Red Observation Satellite”), the formal NASA Project Designation Committee, or informal usage later adopted officially; the study covers approved projects through 1974 and excludes canceled or postponed ones. Six parts cover Launch Vehicles, Satellites, Space Probes, Manned Space Flight, Sounding Rockets, and NASA Installations, followed by four appendixes: a glossary of abbreviations and acronyms, the international spacecraft designation system, the NASA Major Launch Record 1958–1974, and the NASA Naming Committees. A prefatory Note explains NASA’s inconsistent numbering conventions, including how secondary flight designations such as Freedom 7 (Mercury-Redstone 3) and Friendship 7 (Mercury-Atlas 6) related to official flight numbers. The preface also credits Arthur G. Renstrom of the Library of Congress and NASA Archivist Lee D. Saegesser for locating illustrative photographs.