| Acronym | Meaning |
| TOPS | Toward Other Planetary Systems |
| VAFB | Vandenberg Air Force Base |
| RTLS | Return To Launch Site |
| AAS | American Astronomical Society |
| IFEA | Integrated Furnace Experiment Assembly |
| ORFEUS | Orbiting And Retrievable Far And Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer |
| YSO | Young Stellar Object |
| WFF | Wallops Flight Facility |
| ALEXIS | Array Of Low Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors |
| NASP | National AeroSpace Plane |