| Acronym | Meaning |
| MTPE | Mission To Planet Earth |
| MARS | Series Of Soviet Mars Spacecraft |
| KPNO | Kitt Peak National Observatory |
| UT | Universal Time |
| RKA | Rossiskoye Kosmicheskoye Agentsvo |
| VMF | Voenno-Morskoy Flot |
| ELV | Expendable Launch Vehicle |
| E | Elliptical (for Galaxies) |
| SAIL | Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory |
| ARC | Ames Research Center (NASA) |