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Date: Mon, 11 Mar 91 01:46:15 -0500 (EST)
Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #254

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 254

Today's Topics:
	    Three-Letter Acronym (TLA) Update Program (UP)

Administrivia:

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Date: 9 Mar 91 01:30:32 GMT
From: bonnie.concordia.ca!IRO.UMontreal.CA!matrox!uvm-gen!kira!news@uunet.uu.net  (Garrett A. Wollman)
Subject: Three-Letter Acronym (TLA) Update Program (UP)

=====NOTICE=====
This is a *draft* version of the acronym list I originally said I
would do by mid-February.  Apologies to anyone who was waiting.  Even
now, this posting is severely lacking, IMO; anyone who has additions
*PLEASE* mail me.  Next posting will be between two and four weeks
from now.
================

This message is periodically posted to the newsgroup sci.space in an
effort to make NASAspeak understandable to the general reader.  The
primary purpose is a repository for space-related acronyms; however, I
reserve the right to make non-acronymic entries at any time.  Just the
same, this document does not attempt to cover any issues in-depth; for
more information, you will probably want to read the FAQ, posted by
leech@vangogh.cs.unc.edu, which also comes out about once a month.

The title of this posting comes from an April-fools' spoof of Peter
Yee's "NASA Headline News" postings; I believe that this is in the
archive at Ames.

Many of the descriptions here are from the NASA Mixed Fleet Manifest
dated February 1991.  Others are blatantly stolen from Mark Bradford's
acronym posting, which is somewhat shorter; these entries are marked
with a splat (`*').

A Three-Letter Acronym (TLA) is defined as follows (from The Jargon
File 2.7.1, edited by Eric S. Raymond):

TLA: /tee el ay/ [Three-Letter Acronym] n. 1. Self-describing
   acronym for a species with which computing terminology is infested.
   2. Any confusing acronym at all.  Examples include MCA, FTP, SNA,
   CPU, MMU, SCCS, DMU, FPU, TLA, NNTP.  People who like this looser
   usage argue that not all TLAs have three letters, just as not all
   four-letter words have four letters.  One also hears of `ETLA'
   (Extended Three Letter Acronym, pronounced /ee tee el ay/) being
   used to describe four-letter acronyms.  The term `SFLA' (Stupid
   Four-Letter Acronym) has also been reported.  See also {YABA}.


=====================
=====     A     =====
=====================

AC: Atlas Centaur.

APU: Auxiliary Power Unit.*

ATDRS: Advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellite.  See TDRS.

ATO: Abort To Orbit.*  If the space shuttle has an engine failure
which still enables it to orbit the earth once, it can make an abort
landing at either Edwards AFB or at White Sands.

AW&ST: Aviation Week and Space Technology.*

=====================
=====     B     =====
=====================

BBXRT: Broad Band X-Ray Telescope.  One of the instruments flown on
the ASTRO-I mission (STS-35).

=====================
=====     C     =====
=====================

Cassini: A Saturn orbiter and Titan probe designed to complement CRAF.
Will study the rings and moons of Saturn.

CIT: California Institute of Technology (CalTech)

COBE: Cosmic Background Explorer.  This satellite analyzes the
spectrum of the 3 K cosmic background radiation left over from the
formation of the Universe.  Irregularities (or lack thereof) in the
cosmic background provide information to cosmologists and physicists
about the conditions in the very early Universe.

COMSAT: Communications Satellite.  Also Communications Satellite Corporation.
CRAF: Comet Rendezvous/Asteroid Fly-by.  This space probe will gather
information about the early Solar System by examining a comet (Kopff)
and an asteroid (449 Hamburga) at close range.

CRRES: Combined Release / Radiation Effects Satellite.*

CSM: Command and Service Module (Apollo spacecraft).*

=====================
=====     D     =====
=====================

DESAT: Desaturation.  Some probes, such as Magellan, use reaction
wheels to position themsevles around some axis.  Eventually, the wheel
gets to be spinning so fast that the probe can no longer use it for
this purpose.  When this happens, the wheel is said to be "saturated."
The probe can remedy this situation by stopping the wheel comppletely
and then reorienting itself; this is called a DESAT.

DOD: Department Of Defense (sometimes DoD).*

DOMSAT: Domestic Satellite (usually also a COMSAT).

=====================
=====     E     =====
=====================

EDO: Extended Duration Orbiter.*  A kit installed in an orbiter to
extend missin time to 16 days.

ELV: Expendable Launch Vehicle.*

EOS: Earth Observing System.*

ESA: European Space Agency.*

ET: (Shuttle) External Tank.*

=====================
=====     F     =====
=====================

FOC: Faint Object Camera.*  One of five scientific instruments on the HST.

FOS: Faint Object Spectrograph.*  One of five scientific instruments
on the HST.

Fred: Space Station Freedom, after budget cuts have downsized the
project so much that the word "Freedom" no longer fits on the side (or
as a description).

=====================
=====     G     =====
=====================

GAS: Get-Away Special.*

GEO: Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (also GSO).*

GHRS: Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph.*  One of five scientific
instruments on the HST.

GIF: Graphics Interchange Format.*

GMT: Greenwich Mean Time.*  This is not really the same as Universal
Time Coordinated (UTC), but it is numerically identical so far as I
can make out.  Also called "Zulu" after the military convention of
assigning letters to time zones.

GOES: Geostationary Operational Earth Satellite.*  One of a series of
Clarke-orbit weather satellites operated by NOAA to keep track of
severe weather (hurricanes and the like) in the tropics.

GRO: Gamma Ray Observatory.*

=====================
=====     H     =====
=====================

HST: Hubble Space Telescope.*

HSP: High Speed Photometer.  One of five scientific instruments on the
Hubble Space Telescope.

=====================
=====     I     =====
=====================

IMAX: Not really an acronym.  IMAX Systems Corp. provides NASA with
two large-format motion-picture cameras, for both scientific and
moviemaking purposes.

IR: Infrared.*

IRAS: Infrared Astronomical Satellite.  This satellite, launched in
the early eighties, made a full-sky map of infrared emissions before
its cooling system ran down, rendering it inoperable.

IUE: International Ultraviolet Explorer.*

IUS: Inertial Upper Stage.

=====================
=====     J     =====
=====================

JILA: Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics.*

JPL: Jet Propulsion Laboratory.*  JPL is run by CalTech (CIT) under
contract to NASA.  Although their original purpose was to study jet
propulsion, JPL is now primarily associated (in the public mind) with
space probes and image processing.

JSC: Johnson Space Center.*

=====================
=====     K     =====
=====================

KSC: Kennedy Space Center.*  Located on beautiful Merritt Island in Florida.

=====================
=====     L     =====
=====================

LANL: Los Alamos National Laboratories.

LDEF: Long Duration Exposure Facility.*

LEM: Lunar Excursion Module (Apollo spacecraft.*)

LEO: Low Earth Orbit.*

LLNL: Lawrence-Livermore National Laboratories.*

LOX: Liquid Oxygen, used as rocket fuel.

LRB: Liquid Rocket Booster.*

=====================
=====     N     =====
=====================

NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.*

NASP: National AeroSpace Plane.*

NIST: National Institute for Standards and Technology (was NBS).*

NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.*  Also, a
series of polar-orbiting weather satellites operated by NOAA.

NSF: National Science Foundation.*

=====================
=====     O     =====
=====================

OMB: Office of Management and Budget.*

OMS: Orbital Maneuvering System.*

OPF: Orbiter Processing Facility.*

ORBI: Stock ticker symbol for OSC.

OSC: Orbital Sciences Corporation.  One of the few existing companies
formed for the purposes of space commercialization.  OSC is best known
for the Pegasus, a launch vehicle that does away with the lower stages
of a rocket by launching the vehicle from the air.

OSCAR: Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio.

OV: Orbital Vehicle.*  The shuttle orbiters are officially numbered as
OV-foo, where foo is some integer.

=====================
=====     R     =====
=====================

ROSAT: ROentgen SATellite.*

RTLS: Return To Launch Site (Shuttle abort plan).*  Under this scheme,
the shuttle makes a wide turn and then glides back into KSC upon abort.

=====================
=====     S     =====
=====================

SAREX: Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment.

SDIO: Strategic Defense Initiative Organization.

SETI: Search for extraterrestrial intelligence.*

SITURN: Galileo carries some rather sensitive instruments aboard.  In
order to protect these instruments, the probe is occasinally
repositioned so that they are shielded from the sun by the high-gain
antenna.  This is called a SITURN.

SIRTF: Space Infrared Telescope Facility.*

SLAR: Side-Looking Airborne Radar.  A remote-sensing technique using
radar shot from high-flying planes.

SME: Solar Mesosphere Explorer.*

SMM: Solar Maximum Mission.*  Also called ``Solar Max.''

SNR: Signal to Noise Ratio.*

SRB: Solid Rocket Booster.*

SRM: Solid Rocket Motor.*

SSF: Space Station Freedom.*  See Fred.

SSME: Space Shuttle Main Engine.*

SSTO: Single Stage To Orbit.

STARCAL: Star Calibration.  Every so often, Magellan is programmed to
recalibrate its position with respect to some (reasonably) fixed
stars.

STS: Space Transport System.*  That is, the shuttle.

=====================
=====     T     =====
=====================

TDRS: Tracking and Data Relay Satellite.*

TSS: Tethered Satellite System.*

=====================
=====     U     =====
=====================

UARS: Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite.*

UT: Universal Time.*

UV: Ultraviolet.*

=====================
=====     V     =====
=====================

VAB: Vehicle Assembly Building.*  Originally constructed to assemble
Saturn V stacks, the VAB was recycled to perform the analogous service
for the shuttle program.  One of the largest open enclosed spaces in
the world, the VAB sometimes generates its own weather.

VAFB: Vandenberg Air Force Base.*

VOIR: Venus Orbiting Imaging Radar (superseded by VRM.*)

VRM: Venus Radar Mapper (now called Magellan).*

=====================
=====     W     =====
=====================

WF/PC: Wide Field / Planetary Camera.*  One of five scientific
instruments on the HST.

--
Garrett A. Wollman - wollman@griffin.uvm.edu

Disclaimer:  I'm not even sure this represents *my* opinion, never
mind UVM's, EMBA's, EMBA-CF's, or indeed anyone else's.

------------------------------

End of SPACE Digest V13 #254
*******************