"Pat Flannery" wrote in
I sort of doubt that they wouldn't know that KH-11 was a recon sat, both
it's orbital path and altitude would have differentiated it from a
ferret satellite, plus they would have taken photos of it in orbit, and
it would have looked different from a SIGINT or RORSAT.

There is a delicious story involving deliberate US deception here.

Our side misled the Russkies into NOT worrying about a bird that
obviously WAS in a reccesat-type orbit, or so it is said.

I have been assured by deep-inside veterans that a) the story is true,
and b) the story is false.