Didn’t they also get a few older (Hubble type) spy satellites to use? I remember a story about that.

My hazy memory is that the NRO offered NASA a few satellite bodies that they could populate with optic systems. Since they were originally designed for monitoring earth they aren’t well suited for capturing data at much longer distances. If I recall correctly I think someone explained that it’s like trying to peer through a straw, it works, but ideally you’d want a much wider field of view. And apparently the James Web telescope handles this much better.

The NRO satellites actually have an optical design with a larger field of view than Hubble does. One of the NRO spacecraft busses is being use for the WFIRST / Nancy Grace Roman space telescope because of the wider field of view.

Good info, thanks for the corrections!

They're launching one, the other is waiting for a use-case.