On Jan 26, 6:53 pm, Sylvia Else wrote:

Anyone know what kind of orbit a spy satellite would be in? Would they
always be polar, or might Sydney be safe?


The satellite that's extremely likely to be the one in question,
USA-193, is in a 58.5 degree orbit. So if you live in northern Canada,
a fair chunk of Russia, most of Scandinavia, or Antarctica, you're
safe. Everybody else is (safe - epsilon), where epsilon is a teeny
quantity.

Week-old TLE retrieved from Heavens Above:

USA-193
1 29651U 06057A 08022.26925691 0.00105000 00000-0 21306-3 0 07
2 29651 58.5247 160.3977 0003288 53.6760 306.3240 15.98950761 06