Gotta love it when military/spy groups fail to do basic things like test their antennas. Of course, there's still a zillion spy satellites out there, but at least there are two fewer than previously expected.
Based on this story, I'm guessing these are the folks running Germany's spy apparatus.
Some of these spy satellites point away from Earth. I know on good authority the USSF is interested in propulsion systems for nanosats that will be used for defense between low Earth orbit (LEO) and the moon. They want swarm capability.
Also, just because they say it failed doesn't mean it's not actually used for another unpublished purpose.
Oh, great point there that the "failure" could well be a cover.
Anything governments or their respective major media outlets say their say about satellites is most likely a deception, the national security interests of every major country see anti-satellite warfare as contested battlespace and the next generation warfighting domain
Semper Supra
I asked AI how many of these spy satellites in the world there are, it said 60-80.
It seems kind of low... Technically we all have spy devices in our pockets everywhere we walk from our own government.