[EdwinHoksberg]

Yes you would be correct if we were talking about imaging satellites, but communication spy satellites would be in geostationary orbit :)

[HarryHirsch]

Not necessarily, the Molniya orbit is a thing. (Most wars these days are fought at low latitude, though, so this orbital arrangement has cone out of fashion, except to supply TV signal to Siberia.)

[kurthr]

TIL - The Tundra (and Molniya) orbits are really interesting highly eccentric geosync (demigeosync) orbits that spend most of their time at high inclination perigee to allow clear line of sight transmission above 1 (or 2 locations) on Earth. This is useful since geostationary satellites are low angle at high latitudes and more difficult to launch. They are almost always at 63 degrees to avoid orbit perturbation due to gravitational anomalies, but still have to pass through the Van Allen radiation belts 2 (or 4) times per day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tundra_orbit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molniya_orbit

[syncsynchalt]

If you go to http://stuffin.space and filter for the word "Molniya" you still get a beautiful shape out of it. It'll be a while before they all come down.

[euroclydon]

Ok. I guess a time lapsed photo should show polar orbit sats as long streaks on the y axis and stars as short streaks on the x axis and geostationary sats as bright dots.