NRO L-49 patch has just appeared on ebay:
http://www.webcitation.org/5imPuwg3q (I've archived the URL as ebay don't keep pages for too long).
Much more interesting than some of the recent ones in terms of "clues" to the payload. A bird (presumably a phoenix) is rising out of a fire at the bottom of the patch. Fourteen stars are clearly visible, ten on a US flag in the background, and four at the bottom of the patch. What I believe is a fifteenth star is partially obscured by the bird's wing. In addition, one of the stars on the US flag appears to be in the bird's beak. The words
"melior diabolus quem scies" appear at the top of the patch, which roughly translate as
"better the devil you know".
My own assessment of this would be that the phoenix symbolises the NRO's optical reconnaissance programme "rising out of the ashes" of FIA. As I stated previously, it was reported that Improved Crystal production was restarted when FIA was cancelled, and I had previously suspected that L-49 might be an Improved Crystal. The latin phrase seems to support this theory. Also, if this is an Improved Crystal, it would be the fifteenth launch of a KH-11 series satellite (including the ones sometimes identified as KH-12, and excluding both Misty satellites). One of the earlier KH-11 launches failed, so the fifteen stars could represent the fifteen launches, with the obscured one representing the failure. The star that appears to be in the bird's beak could represent NRO L-49, being "carried" to orbit (I'm fairly sure that symbolism has been used before). Finally, the shape of the phoenix's wings is similar to the shape of a symbol which appeared on the NRO L-14 patch, which is believed to have been an Improved Crystal launch.
