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| ARC | Ames Research Center Ames Research Center, one of 10 NASA field Centers, is located in the heart of California's Silicon Valley. For over 60 years, Ames has led NASA in conducting world-class research and development. |
| CCD | Charge-Coupled Device A charge-coupled device (CCD) is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by “shifting” the signals between stages within the device one at a time. |
| CVZ | Continuous Viewing Zone |
| DSN | Deep Space Network The Deep Space Network (DSN) supports NASA and non-NASA missions that explore the furthest points of our solar system. The DSN has three ground stations located approximately 120 degrees apart on Earth (120 + 120 + 120 = 360). |
| EHPD | Explorers and Heliophisics Projects Division The Explorers and Heliophysics Projects Division (EHPD) consists of three programs: Explorers, Living With a Star (LWS), and Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP). |
| E/PO | Education and Public Outreach Science outreach, also called Education and Public Outreach (EPO or E/PO) or simply Public outreach, is an umbrella term for a variety of activities by research institutes, universities, and institutions such as science museums, aimed at promoting public awareness (and understanding) of science and making informal contributions to science education. |
| GSFC | Goddard Space Flight Center NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study Earth, the sun, our solar system and the universe. |
| HEO | High Earth Orbit A high Earth orbit is a geocentric orbit with an altitude entirely above that of a geosynchronous orbit. |
| JWST | James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large 6.5 meter space telescope that will be launched later this decade. JWST is optimized to study infrared light from the Universe with four sensitive imaging and spectroscopic instruments. |
| LL | MIT Lincoin Laboratory MIT Lincoln Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. |
| LRD | Launch Readiness Date |
| MIT | Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts known traditionally for research and education in the physical sciences and engineering, and more recently in biology, economics, linguistics, and management as well. |
| MKT | MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research The mission of the MIT Kavli Institute (MKI) for Astrophysics and Space Research is to facilitate and carry out the research programs of faculty and research staff whose interests lie in the broadly defined area of astrophysics and space research. |
| NASA | National Aeronautics and Space Administration The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research. |
| NLS | NASA Launch Services Launch Services is responsible for NASA oversight of launch operations and countdown management, providing added quality and mission assurance in lieu of the requirement for the launch service provider to obtain a commercial launch license. |
| OA | Orbital ATK Orbital ATK is an American company specializing in the manufacturing and launch of satellites. Its Launch Systems Group is heavily involved with missile defense launch systems. |
| SAO | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is one of the largest and most diverse astrophysical institutions in the world, where scientists carry out a broad program of research in astronomy, astrophysics, earth and space sciences, and science education. |
| STEM | Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics The term is typically used in addressing education policy and curriculum choices in schools from k-12 through college to improve competitiveness in technology development. It has implications for workforce development, national security concerns and immigration policy. |
| STSci | Space Telescope Science Institute The Space Telescope Science Institute is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope and for the James Webb Space Telescope. |
| TESS | Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is a planned space telescope for NASA's Explorer program, designed to search for extrasolar planets using the transit method. |
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