I'd imagine spy satellites don't always look directly down on their targets. Especially if they want to look at something not directly under its ground track, t

I'd imagine spy satellites don't always look directly down on their targets. Especially if they want to look at something not directly under its ground track, the satellite would need the ability to look at things off to the side. So that'd enable reading something vertical. Still would need to look at it from the _correct_ angle though.