via Trevor Paglen’s work on top-secret US military patches

“My initial interpretations/guesses about the symbolism:

- The patch is probably for some kind of classified spacecraft.
- As Dwayne Day showed in his excellent series for the Space Review, dragon symbolism is often associated with SIGINT payloads. The return address on the envelope obviously comes from a place where there’s a lot of interest in SIGINT payloads.
- The dragon’s golden wings underlines the connection (golden dragon wings often symbolize the massive gold-foil covered dish antennae characteristic of SIGINT spacecraft.)
- The red arrow’s trajectory suggests a Molniya orbit similar to those associated with JUMPSEAT and TRUMPET spacecraft.
- As Dwayne Day showed, stars often represent the number of spacecraft in a given “constellation.” The stars here may suggest that this spacecraft if being added to a preexisting constellation of five other craft with similar missions.
- The meanings of the red point in Asia and the snake-like figure in the lower part of the patch are unclear. The Latin phrase Omnis Vestri Substructio Es Servus Ad Nobis recalls a 2001-2002 internet meme from a poorly translated Japanese video game: “All Your Base Are Belong to Us.””