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One of the more ominous Latin phrases included on an NRO mission patch, melior diabolus quem scies roughly translates as "the devil you know." Is the NRO saying that they, as the devil we know, are preferable to the alternative of international threats? Or perhaps that it is the NRO's responsibility to learn about all the devils of the world? Either way, the combination of the Latin with the bird engulfed in flames (possibly a phoenix) on NROL-49 is rather unsettling. The satellite itself is an optical imaging sat launched in 2011. It is part of the KH-11 KENNEN, codenamed Evolved Enhanced CRYSTAL (EEC), a network of imaging satellites.