I am always an advocate of logos that can be represented in black-and-white or 3 shades of gray at most. In addition to looking good when printed in monotone, they also are easy to engrave in granite/concrete - here's the Worm logo in Granite. Try that with the Meatball. https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/images/background/...

The worm logo is taught in design school. Like the FedEx arrow, it has become a textbook example of classic design. It also harkens back to the UI elements of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which is a very positive link for the NASA brand (although the causality is backwards--the worm inspired the Star Trek set designer).

I agree with the qualities that make a good logo, but it's also very much a product of its time. SF Muni adopted a worm logo around the same time, and it looks equally gimmicky and dated.