this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2024
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From my understanding, the most capable spy satellites are either in geostationary orbit or polar orbits.
Geo orbit gets you constant survalance but in limited areas
Polar orbit gets you almost anywhere but only periodic survalance while you wait for the orbit to process.
So this can be good for getting somewhere you don't typically monitor in real time or to get quicker more real time info on a target.
Also, a big threat the government is worried about right now is the physical saftey of space assets. If someone launches a space weapon and takes out a spy satellite, I can see how the government would want a good fallback