| Acronym | Meaning |
| SAT | Synthetic Aperture Telescope |
| LY | Light Year (usu. Ly) |
| IOA | Institute Of Astronomy (Cambridge) |
| ACRV | Assured Crew Return Vehicle |
| HAO | High Altitude Observatory |
| VLA | Very Large Array |
| EURECA | European Retrievable Carrier |
| PN | Planetary Nebula |
| FFT | Fast Fourier Transform |
| PMC | Permanently Manned Capability |