It should be noted Topaz was the only outcome of a failed $25 billion dollar project called Future Imagery Architecture:
> the project was killed in what the Times report calls "perhaps the most spectacular and expensive failure in the 50-year history of American spy satellite projects."
Haha, no wonder that in the actual logo, the globe is turned so that the octopus is feeding on North America. The motto instead should have been "nom, nom, nom".
:) Actually, the fact that China is turned to the viewer, with a tentacle overlaying it, is possibly indicative of its tasking. The octopus has five tentacles; three are visible, and this is the third of five TOPAZ satellites to be launched.
> the project was killed in what the Times report calls "perhaps the most spectacular and expensive failure in the 50-year history of American spy satellite projects."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reconnaissance_Office...
They spent more money than the entire GDP of about 90+ countries for a single spy satellite:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi...
A big portion of that money went to Boeing:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/washington/11satellite.htm...