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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerica Is Launching A Giant, World-Sucking Octopus Into Space
One of the National Security Agency's partners is launching a spy satellite with a classified payload into space on Thursday night -- and its logo is an angry, globe-gripping octopus.
The spacecraft, being rocketed into the sky by an Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, carries a payload from the National Reconnaissance Office. Far less well-known than the NSA, the NRO has a budget that is only a shade smaller -- $10.3 billion a year -- and provides satellite-based surveillance capabilities.
"Nothing is beyond our reach," reads a motto beneath the world-sucking cephalopod. The logo is the latest in a long line of patches produced for classified military missions that are equal parts menacing and mysterious.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which also oversees the NSA, tweeted pictures of the launch preparation. That spurred Christopher Soghoian, of the American Civil Liberties Union, to give the spooks some free advice: "You may want to downplay the massive dragnet spying thing right now. This logo isn't helping."
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- Doesn't this make you feel all snugly and secure? Octopus? This is beginning to read like the plot of an old James Bond movie.
newfie11
(8,159 posts)We created the first atomic bomb
We used the first 2 atomic bombs on humans (so far the only ones used).
We invade countries, kill innocents with drones.
We spend more on our military than multiple countries out together.
Now we're sending a spy satellite into space with a picture of an octopus taking over the world.
Don't people realize they're only doing it for our own good!?!?!
Don't they know that we're saving them over here so we don't have to save them over there!?!?!
Gawd! How many more satellites, billions of peace-bullets and tasers do we have to brandish to get people to understand!?!?!?
Do we need more airport X-ray machines in here!?!?!
Don't they see how hard it is to save freedom so that people can have freedom by keeping it fresh and clean by not letting people actually use their freedom!?!?!?
- I'll never understand people......
heaven05
(18,124 posts)hundreds of thousand on misleading(lies) and flimsy pretexts. Oh, ya got to love us or die.
BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)My first reaction was this has to be satire. Nobody could be that shockingly arrogant, could they?
NutmegYankee
(16,178 posts)A satellite by nature presents the entire world for viewing. Patches like this are produced for every program and vessel and are often designed by members to be "bad ass, cool, and intimidating".
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)Bucky
(53,804 posts)A gladiator, but from some frighteningly militant alien species obviously intent on galactic domination
Nasa program intended to drain all the unicorn juice out of the sun
A psychotic giant bird, able to breathe in the vacuum of space harvesting marijuana from the moon.
A giant taser in the act of zapping a dove until it turns bronze-plated
A ram thrusting into the wall of the universe and apparently powered by a big shiny blue viagra pill -- Ew, please stop "exporing my oundaries
AAO
(3,300 posts)NutmegYankee
(16,178 posts)DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)...involved in any way with their missions. Right? As with the octopus above, the arms all belong to one animal.
- One insane-ass animal that likes to kill for money and oil......
DRoseDARs
(6,810 posts)Unless you're being intentionally obtuse, NASA does not design logos for the NSA nor vice versa.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Or they could become ANSA, or NSAA!
klook
(12,134 posts)"Dark Side of the Moon"...
Great post - thanks for the images and clever commentary!
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)NutmegYankee
(16,178 posts)I was referring to military programs and vessels, which use the NRO. You displayed NASA patches which are a totally different world. Here's a small selection of morale or unit patches:
NutmegYankee
(16,178 posts)tclambert
(11,080 posts)The giant world-sucking octopus, I mean, not the bureaucratic secret spy organization. Even a Timelord can't save us from those.
JHB
(37,133 posts)Besides, it was K-9 who did all the heavy lifting to get rid of the Galactopus.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)You remember, Lt. Uhura and Captain Kirk got stuck in the docking bay and she said that his hands were like an eight-armed octopus....
...wait, that's was another Star Trek I'm thinking of.
- Forget I said anything......
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)GeorgeGist
(25,294 posts)Stupid phucks are in charge of the global force for goodest.
Pholus
(4,062 posts)After all, the octopus tentacles touch the rest of world while the octopus is sucking directly on North America.
All in all, as well thought out a logo as "Total Information Awareness"
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)- Just the usual New World Order minutiae. Pyramids. 3rd Eyes. You know, the usual kind of stuff. Nothing to worry about.
Pholus
(4,062 posts)The honesty of the imagery these guys turn out has always astounded me, considering how high an opinion they have of their own subtlety....
freshwest
(53,661 posts)http://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2013/06/22/british-spy-agency-gchq-taps-fibre-optic-cables-for-secret-access-to-worlds-communications/
Sometimes, things are not exactly what they seem or what CT tells us. I knew it was going to be just another private contract paradise run by soulless bastids. Typical.
Savannahmann
(3,891 posts)Honesty, integrity, respect.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)leeroysphitz
(10,462 posts)DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: December 6, 2013
...
But independent satellite-watchers believe the spacecraft will join the NRO's fleet of spacecraft with radars to penetrate cloaks of clouds and darkness and reveal what adversaries are doing regardless of weather or time of day.
...
But hobbyists have honed their ability to track satellites in orbit, watching them go overhead based on known launch trajectories and previous experience. With several observations, the hobbyists can estimate a satellite's orbital altitude and inclination, or the angle of the craft's ground track with the equator.
Thursday night's mission, officially dubbed NROL-39, launched on the same type of rocket and on a trajectory mirroring the September 2010 flight, which put its payload in an orbit nearly 700 miles up in a unique retrograde orbit traveling in the opposite direction of Earth's rotation.
...
According to top secret budget documents leaked by Edward Snowden and published by the Washington Post in August, the radar spy satellites are given the codename "Topaz" and replace a previous generation of radar-equipped "Onyx" spacecraft.
The budget document indicated five Topaz satellites are planned before transitioning to a "Block 2" line with upgrades. If the interpretation is correct, two more Topaz satellites remain to be launched before the NRO moves to a follow-on system.
...
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av042/131206launch/
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)"nearly 700 miles up in a unique retrograde orbit traveling in the opposite direction of Earth's rotation"
... Means these artifacts cover the ground below (and counter-orbiting satellites) very quickly. Useful for surveillance, but also, if armed, for attack.
NewJeffCT
(56,827 posts)deutsey
(20,166 posts)DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)Pholus
(4,062 posts)Saved to my pics directory!
FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)caraher
(6,276 posts)The first thing I urgently needed was a weapon to shoot down drones.
Now I can see I also need a weapon to shoot down satellites.
This going to get expensive.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,576 posts)Arkana
(24,347 posts)KoKo
(84,711 posts)Can't think of anything else to say...except Oh ...my... Right in your face they are...no shame.
fadedrose
(10,044 posts)I can't believe the government is going to all this trouble just to watch me work in my yard. If only they'd have asked.....
fadedrose
(10,044 posts)Dash87
(3,220 posts)Response to DeSwiss (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
eppur_se_muova
(36,227 posts)hatrack
(59,446 posts)Not just cosmic evil and planet-shredding blood lust - but both characteristics combined with cat DNA . . . .
carla
(553 posts)it is the head of Chthulu. Image of the USG.
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)you don't think like a human being.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)... SOMEONE would have raised a fucking hand and said 'hey guys...'.
I mean come on
CubicleGuy
(323 posts)... the logo for the quartet of bad guys opposing Our Hero is an octopus strangling the planet:
The logo reads: United Underworld - Today Gotham City, Tomorrow the World
NobodyHere
(2,810 posts)nt
Erose999
(5,624 posts)Cleita
(75,480 posts)hatrack
(59,446 posts)jmowreader
(50,453 posts)"In God We Trust - All Others We Monitor."
Tien1985
(920 posts)Are we sure this is legit? It seems so out there? Smh
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)ConcernedCanuk
(13,509 posts).
.
.
Send her up in space to keep that critter company.
CC
ctsnowman
(1,903 posts)going to have to cut back on those pesky entitlement programs to keep paying for this shit.
agent46
(1,262 posts)The logo is more stupid than scary. Probably designed and approved by the new breed of dumbed down American bureaucrat, raised on violent video games and educated on YouTube.
backscatter712
(26,355 posts)...was when NASA was hurting for money, was looking for a way to fund putting an astronomical satellite or two in orbit, and went around, hat in hand, and the NRO essentially told them "Hey, we've got a pair of spares in our garage, you want em?"
The spares that the NRO were trying to get rid of were two Hubble-sized space telescopes! Junk to our military-intelligence-industrial complex, but had the NASA people's eyes popping out of their skulls!
http://atomictoasters.com/2012/06/the-nro-takes-pity-on-nasa-gives-them-spare-hardware/
BelgianMadCow
(5,379 posts)Well, that's what Vampire Squid says to me Can't believe nobody brought it up in the thread so far.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405#ixzz2mpa4bUCw
Matariki
(18,775 posts)Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Crowman1979
(3,844 posts)The computer generated ones look like crap that was made with Windows 95 or some s*** like that.
grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)darkangel218
(13,985 posts)Hmm...