National Advisory | This Day in Aviation

Modified NASA insignia, circa 1961. “On a disc of the blue sky strewn with white stars, to dexter a large yellow sphere bearing a red flight symbol apex in upper sinister and wings enveloping and casting a gray-blue shadow upon the sphere, all partially encircled with a horizontal white orbit, in sinister a small light-blue sphere; circumscribing the disk a white band edged gold inscribed “National Aeronautics and Space Administration U.S.A.” in red letters.” (NASA) — Modified NASA insignia, circa 1961. (NASA)

29 July 1958: Dwight David Eisenhower, Thirty-fourth President of the United States of America, signed Public Law #85-568 (72 Stat. 426), the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, which established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Congress declared a requirement for aeronautics and space research, and

…that it is the policy of the United States that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind.

Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States of America. (Photographed by Louis Fabian Bachrach, Jr., 1952)

President Eisenhower had proposed civilian National Aeronautics and Space Agency to Congress in a letter sent 2 April 1958. The Bill passed on 16 July.

The proposal included an early black and white version of the NASA insignia. This had been designed by industrial artist George Neago of the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, Sunnyvale, California, and submitted to NACA for a design competition.

Early black and white version of the NASA insignia. (NASA) — Early black and white version of the NASA insignia. (George Neago, Lockheed Missiles and Space Company/National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics)

The red chevron in the NASA insignia is a representation of a wind tunnel model of Mach 3+ hypersonic wing that the insignia designers had observed during a tour of the NACA Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. This emphasizes the aeronautics mission of NASA.

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29 July 1958