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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #360
SPACE Digest Volume 13 : Issue 360
Today's Topics:
Three-Letter Acronym (TLA) Update Program (UP)
Administrivia:
Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to
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From: agate!bionet!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!olivea!bbn.com!nic!kira!news@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Garrett A. Wollman)
Subject: Three-Letter Acronym (TLA) Update Program (UP)
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 (`*').
Thanks to the following other individuals who made a contribution to
this posting: Jonathan McDowell.
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.
AFP: Air Force Program. Usually in the form AFP-n, where n is some
three-digit number. For example, a classified reconaissance satellite
launched in 1990 was part of the AFP-731 program.
AOA: Abort Once Around. 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.
APU: Auxiliary Power Unit.*
ARC: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. The home of the
sci.space/SPACE Digest archives, as well as Peter Yee.
ATDRS: Advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellite. See TDRS.
ATO: Abort To Orbit.* If the space shuttle has a failure on takeoff
which still allows it to enter a minimal orbit, it will do so and
attempt to salvage whatever is left of the mission.
AURA: Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. One of
the large university consortia which vie for government contracts to
do space and astronomy research. AURA operates STScI.
AW&ST: Aviation Week and Space Technology.*
AXAF: Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility.* One of NASA's "Great
Observatories" along with HST, GRO, and (??)
=====================
===== 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.
CCAFS: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The USAF launch site next to
KSC. Delta, Atlas, and Titans are all launched from here.
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.
CNES: Centre National d'Etude Spatiales. The French space agency.
CRRES: Combined Release / Radiation Effects Satellite.* This
satellite releases materials while in orbit to study auroras and other
geomagnetic interactions.
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.
DFRF: Dryden Flight Research Facility. Another research center
located at Moffett Field, Calif. Home of Mary Shafer and lots of