NROL-5 Capricorn Atlas IIA AC-109 Launch Team Patch

Atlas AC-109 had four launch days on Launch Complex 36A in January 1998 before the weather let it go. High clouds closed the range on January 26, a prior range commitment took January 27, and strong upper-level winds called off January 28 before fueling. On January 29 a shift in the winds meant the team loaded a new steering program, and the Atlas IIA left the pad at 1:37 p.m. Eastern. Its payload was a National Reconnaissance Office spacecraft nicknamed Capricorn. The launch is listed publicly as NROL-5, with the satellite cataloged as USA-137.

AC-109 was an Atlas IIA with a Centaur upper stage, flying from Cape Canaveral Air Station. About 70 minutes after liftoff the Centaur placed Capricorn in a nearly perfect orbit. The Space and Missile Systems Center Launch Programs Office sponsored the mission, and the 45th Space Wing and its 3rd Space Launch Squadron, 3 SLS, at Patrick Air Force Base managed Atlas missions from the Cape. Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver built the Atlas IIA and Centaur. Beyond the launch date, vehicle, pad and public designations, the mission of the payload has not been released, and this listing does not guess at it.

The patch is a keystone shape, wide at the top and narrowing toward the bottom, with a brown merrowed border around a royal blue field. ATLAS LAUNCH TEAM runs across the top in white. In the center a white Atlas with black and gold bands climbs on a red-orange flame between two spread gold wings. Ten gold stars run down the sides, five to a side, framing ATLAS AC-109 on the left and CAPRICORN on the right, with 3 SLS stitched at the base. It comes with a sew-on backing, made to be stitched in place on a jacket or a bag.

Launches like this one did not draw crowds or news crews, and the payload was never the team's to talk about. What the team could own was the vehicle number and the day it went. Squadron launch crews, range and weather people, and contractor engineers spent four days holding a rocket ready and calling scrubs before the winds turned. The patch puts the serial number, the nickname and the squadron on one piece of cloth. That is how the people who launched AC-109 chose to remember it.

It fits a shadow box next to other 3 SLS and 45th Space Wing patches, or a flight jacket worn to a squadron reunion. It is also a good gift for anyone who worked the Cape in the late 1990s and still talks about Pad 36. One launch, one afternoon of good winds, one patch.