| Acronym | Meaning |
| SB | Spiral |
| APL | Applied Physics Laboratory (at Johns Hopkins) |
| TRMM | Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission |
| TOS | Transfer Orbit Stage |
| HIRIS | High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer |
| UVS | Ultraviolet Spectrometer |
| APT | Automatic Photoelectric Telescope |
| SL | (Comet) Shoemaker-Levy / SpaceLab |
| GCVS | General Catalog Of Variable Stars |
| LASCO | Large Angle Spectrometric Coronograph |