Back at Beale AFB, when we still had the Blackbird in service, if MI needed info, a mission was planned and they sent out the blackbird. They didn't wait for the satellite schedules. Missions in those days rarely took over an hour–hour and a half.
Whether it's an Aurora vehicle, or the "SR-72", or whatever, MI has access to something superior to satellites. For security, the more spy satellites offline, the better.