Here Come the NASA HQ Logo Cops (Again)

JSC Today: Program Logos and Other Emblems

“Therefore, no other identifiers, such as NASA center identifiers or logos or any other type of graphic representation for any project, program, office, experiment, unmanned missions, payloads and others, will be authorized for use on NASA communications materials. The only exception is astronaut crew emblems. These emblems may be designed by the crew members to be used on items specific to that particular mission, such as crew clothing/uniforms, lapel pins, press kits and crew lithographs.”

Editor’s note: Every several years some bored civil servant at NASA PAO tries to play logo cop. The inevitable result is that all such “directives” are promptly ignored. And of course, the Astronaut office gets special treatment.

If you need proof of flagrant ignoring of such PAO guidelines, just take a look at the New Horizons and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter being integrated with their launch vehicles – logos for missions and contractors appear in clear violation of earlier NASA PAO logo rules supposedly in force way back in 2000.

Then again, I guess PAO has gotten used to logo policing given that a certain previous Administrator did have a certain meatball fascination, of sorts.

What’s next? Retroactive logo upgrades for existing spacecraft? If this silliness goes on I guess I may have to bring Worm Watch back – but expand its scope to cover all unacceptable logos. For starters, the STEREO and Kepler mission websites need to purge some unnacceptable logos.