NASA logos cannot appear together with insignia from other brands, to avoid the perception that NASA is endorsing a specific company or product. Ulrich and his co-worker approve merchandise requests based on a few, different criteria. This spring, he requested additional help to deal with the approval requests and now has a co-worker involved, which has been especially helpful because the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing has made things “quite busy,” Ulrich said. The approval process can be as short as a few hours or as long as a couple of days, Ulrich said. To use either NASA logo on merchandise, companies submit designs to the agency for approval. The National Park Service, for example, does not allow its arrowhead symbol - the brown insignia depicting a green tree, a snowy mountain and a buffalo - to be licensed for consumer merchandise. Use of federal agency logos on consumer products is not the same across the board. It deals with space exploration - things that I feel the entire world could benefit from, not just our country.” “It almost doesn’t feel like it’s part of the government, even though I know it is,” said Reza, a middle-school teacher who lives in Chino. But he said he wouldn’t wear promotional clothing with logos from other federal agencies, at least under the current government. This month, he bought a similar shirt from Urban Outfitters. Last year, space enthusiast Edwin Reza, 31, bought a black T-shirt featuring the NASA meatball logo from a discount retail store. “A lot of people, I think, were quite nostalgic for this logo.” “If you grew up in the ’80s or early ’90s or the ’70s, this logo is what NASA looks like in your mind,” Smyth said. The worm logo has a cult following in the branding and design industry, said Hamish Smyth, who co-founded the publishing house Standards Manual, which produced a coffee-table book about it.Īnd it taps into the childhood wonder that generations of Americans have had about space. But the worm was short-lived, and the meatball was reinstated in 1992 as the official agency identifier. It replaced “the meatball” - the iconic blue circle, white lettering and red, sideways V-shape that had been NASA’s insignia since the late 1950s.

It’s a remnant of the early shuttle era and was an attempt at a more modern look. The logo featured in this line - known at NASA as “the worm” - spells out the agency’s name in three strokes that form rounded red lettering. At the time, Teen Vogue called the line “cosmically cool.”Īfter Coach got the go-ahead, more companies expressed interest in using that logo, and approval requests doubled, Ulrich said. Coach asked permission to use NASA’s 1970s-designed, retro red logo type for its collection - an insignia that had not previously been approved for use on merchandise. Ulrich credits the 2017 limited-edition line of space-themed purses and apparel from Coach as a turning point.

Nasa clothes shop