Richard Danne, left, shakes hands with NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana. Credit…Keegan Barber/NASA

Last month, NASA welcomed Richard Danne to its headquarters in Washington to celebrate work he had done nearly half a century ago.

Mr. Danne never studied the stars. He never built a rocket.

But he and his design partner, Bruce Blackburn, came up with one of the most recognizable elements of the space agency: the logo known as the “worm,” with the acronym N-A-S-A spelled out in bold, sinewy, orange-red letterforms.