A patch that is almost as cluttered as the B-30 patch is the patch for the launch of Titan 4 K-7, which lifted off on May 3, 1994 from Cape Canaveral. That patch contains many elements that are easy to decipher, but also one that is highly intriguing. This rocket became notorious when it sat on the launch pad for 1,054 days. During that long down-time, pad workers had to swap out major rocket components, either because they suffered problems or because they had exceeded their allowed time exposed to the Florida heat, humidity and salt air—damage so severe that the solid rocket boosters had to be removed and replaced not once, but twice.

The launch patch reflects this mission's tortured history. On the left are the numbers of the original Titan 4 core stage, K-9, and Centaur, TC-8, as well as the first pair of Solid Rocket Motors, numbered 15 and 16. On the right are the numbers of the final core stage and Centaur, K-7 and TC-10, as well as the second pair of SRMs, numbered 11 and 12, and the final pair, numbered 13 and 14. The patch also contains a pink rabbit with a blue bird (the blue bird of happiness?) on its head, probably symbolizing the rocket and either the Centaur or the payload. The rabbit is probably modeled on the Energizer Bunny, whose motto “Still going!” is reflected in the patch’s motto “Finally going”.

One interpretation is that the Energizer Bunny is standing next to his drum with the number eight on it. An alternative interpretation is that the rabbit is standing next to what is apparently a hoop of the kind that circus performers make dogs or other animals jump through (the rabbit’s baton is a giveaway that this is a performance of some kind—perhaps the bird is meant to jump through the hoop). The number 8 appears on this hoop. Why an 8? This was the eighth launch of an intelligence payload to that particular orbit. Independent observers and publications like Aviation Week & Space Technology had designated the first launches to be Jumpseats, and there were six successes and one failure. For this launch, which some sources later said was named Trumpet, those involved with the rocket were hoping that the eighth satellite would successfully jump through the hoop.

But the most intriguing aspect of the patch is a series of dates at the bottom above the words “Finally Going”: 1981, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1992, 1993 and 1994. The first four years all predate the Titan 4 program and therefore cannot represent the rocket. The obvious conclusion is that these dates represent the original launch dates for the payload. In other words, the payload that was finally launched in May 1994 had originally been scheduled to launch as early as 1981.

Air Force officials admitted that the spacecraft should have flown on a Titan 4 transported to the launch pad in June 1991—almost three years before its eventual launch. Problems with the Titan (and reportedly exacerbated by an incessant stream of engineering changes requested by the Air Force) forced the payload to be transferred to other Titan components, resulting in a prolonged and very costly launch campaign.

The problem with the interpretation that this was a 13-year-old satellite that had spent all its time in storage is that the size of the Titan 4’s payload shroud implied that this was a large payload, bigger than anything placed into orbit on an expendable launch vehicle. Could this payload have originally been scheduled for launch aboard the Space Shuttle in the early 1980s and then been repeatedly delayed due to problems with that vehicle? Or is some other interpretation possible?

The patch contains five stars inside the border, indicating the fifth Lacrosse launch. Notably, it did not feature owl eyes like two previous Lacrosse mission patches; however, it did feature a pelican, whose golden beak could be interpreted as representing the radar satellite’s golden dish.

The logo for the last Titan 4 launch from the Cape contains so many symbols and possible hints that it is difficult to determine which of them are inside jokes, abstract symbols, or if any are hints about the payload.

But the patch also features some odd elements. One is a gorilla carrying an American flag. What this symbolizes is unknown, although the remake of King Kong did premiere that same year. But another element of the patch is easier to decipher, even if it is not so easy to understand. The palm trees and the brilliant sun are also found in numerous patches for the satellite ground station on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Clearly the satellite has some connection to that ground station, although what is still unknown.