As kids, we definitely went through a phase when we were into military mission patches and medals. It kind of made sense: they’re basically the army equivalent of trading cards in sports. Of course, we got over our brief bout of militarism, but we still dig us some retro NASA mission patches.

They tend to be a little less aggressive and conventional than their armed forces counterparts, as you’ll gather from reading Wired Science’s listicle of NASA’s 13 Most Far Out Mission Patches. Like, for instance, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles patch below, which is somehow real. We found another cool NASA mission patch, included after the jump.

The Exploding Shuttle Ulysses Patch

Is that the sun, or is the shuttle exploding? Also, what’s the Death Star doing in our galaxy?