| Acronym | Meaning |
| MOL | Manned Orbiting Laboratory |
| HOTOL | HOrizontal TakeOff And Landing |
| NIST | National Institute For Standards And Technology |
| NIR | Near InfraRed |
| ORFEUS | Orbiting And Retrievable Far And Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer |
| GPC | General Purpose Computer |
| S | Spiral (for Galaxies) |
| NLDP | National Launch Development Program |
| SDSS | Sloan Digital Sky Survey |
| MMCC | Mission Management And Control Centre |