There's a long history of photo fuckery and disinformation with satellites. So long as you know it's trajectory and speed you know the interval and location it's going to come across and then you can hide it manipulate. It's why keyhole and Corona satellites were so useful.

The US used to paint fake planes onto runways so the Soviets would think we had an absurd amount of planes in development. The source I know of is paywalled now, I'm have to find another but it's kinda interesting honestly.

[–] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

What on earth is north Korea really going to gain with a spy satellite that isn't already on Google maps or Maxar?

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Well not all spy sats are for photography, some are gpr, sigint (essentially sneaking up and grabbing stray data), piggy backs literally adding mass to fuck a satellites orbit and make it die faster. There's a bucket of fun stuff they can do but basically all of it involves not being known.