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kleinbl00  ·  2544 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: SpaceX launches NRO satellite and lands back at Kennedy. 4th landing back on land.

So funny thing.

Usually, the nerds have a pretty goddamn good idea what any given NRO payload is months/years before it goes up based on where it's launching, what it's launching on, and what's already in the sky. Yet Gunter's Space Page has no clue what NROL-76 is.

Typically, the patches are already on the secondary market by the time the launch goes up. There are often three or four versions, and the nerds love to pick them apart to see what they mean. This has had hilarious results like when the mission patch for NROL-11 actually gave up the orbit. But the mission patches for NROL-76 not only don't exist in patch form, not only aren't anywhere near the secondary market, but are pretty much devoid of symbology and quite clearly drawn by the same guy who draws all of SpaceX's patches.

http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-9-nrol-76/nrol-76-satellite/

I'ma go out on a limb and argue that this is a "spec" launch by SpaceX to demonstrate to the NRO that they can launch classified satellites like the big boys.