NROL-55
NROL-55 was sent into space by the United Launch Alliance Thursday. ULA

The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office launched the NROL-55 mission early Thursday morning. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carried a classified payload along with 13 CubeSats to Earth's orbit. The NRO is in charge of secret spy satellite launches, but seems to like having fun with job titles. NRO launches are anticipated for the opportunity to discuss secret things the government may -- or may not -- be doing, along with their cool mission patches.

NROL-55 continues the tradition with a patch featuring a blacksmith who looks like a Viking. The blacksmith, covered in tattoos, is forging a sword, with his hand holding a hammer up to strike. The patch features the Latin inscription "sustentantes bellatores de caelis," which roughly translates to "supporting the warriors of heaven."

NROL-55's main payload is classified, but the rocket was carrying 13 small satellites as part of the Government Rideshare Advanced Concepts Experiment. Nine CubeSats were sponsored by NRO and four were sponsored by NASA. The nine NRO Cubesats include SNaP-3, developed by the Army's Space and Missile Defense Center. "A total of three CubeSats, weighing 4.5 kilogram each, whose mission is to develop user software-defined radios to provide beyond-line-of-sight communication for disadvantaged users in remote location," reads the SNaP-3 description. NASA's CubeSats were developed by the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Salish Kootenai College, a tribal college in Montana and Washington, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Some of the miniature satellites weigh as little as 2.2 pounds.

"The GRACE CubeSats will perform missions demonstrating tracking technologies, software-defined radio communications and will also conduct other measurements and experiments," Jim Sponnick, the United Launch Alliance's vice president for Atlas and Delta programs, said in a statement. Thursday's launch marked the 101st for the alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

NRO launches gained widespread attention when the Internet discovered the inventive patches. The NROL-39 patch featured an octopus with its tentacles wrapping around Warth. The inscription stated "nothing is beyond our reach." All the patches have imaginative, well-crafted designs with cryptic slogans. One particular patch features a teddy bear covered in stars. Smithsonian magazine has a good collection of the NROL patches, and a Google search will reveal even more interesting patches.