Houston, we have a podcast.

Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center,

episode 154, the NASA worm.

I'm Gary Jordan, and I'll be your host today.

On this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, astronauts, even artists,

all to let you know what's going on in the world of human spaceflight.

The worm is back. Now, before you start practicing your dance moves, I'm talking about the NASA worm logo.

You'd recognize it if you saw it. It's that retro-looking logo where N-A-S-A is spelled out in red.

We call that one the worm, and the blue one is called the meatball,

at least informally. In the official NASA style guide, the meatball is called the insignia

and the worm is called the logotype. The worm has been retired for almost 30 years and any official NASA product in that

time has been branded with just the meatball.

But just prior to the launch of NASA's SpaceX demo two mission in May 2020, NASA brought back the use of the worm.

And it's now being used for select missions and products.

The worm design is super famous, and even though it's been retired it's still very much part of pop culture

With a new era of human spaceflight upon us the worm is making a comeback

So to describe this logotype and its history is the very man who designed it, Richard

Daney.

It was he and his firm, Daney and Blackburn, that was selected for NASA's rebranding in the

mid-70s.

Richard is an extremely experienced an award-winning graphic designer.

And on this podcast, he describes the journey from the Worms creation to now, and what it means

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