After the Boeing-led Future Imagery Architecture program failed in 2005, the National Reconnaissance Office ordered two more KH-11s.

Critics worried that each of these "exquisite-class"[2] satellites would cost more than the Navy's latest aircraft carrier (US$6.35 billion in 2005, or about $9,910,000,000 today[3]).

[11] On 30 August 2019, President Donald Trump tweeted a classified picture[12] from an intelligence briefing showing the aftermath of an accident that apparently occurred during launch preparations of a Safir rocket at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport a day earlier.

[16][17] The opinion is based on a close agreement between the estimated time when the photo was taken (based on the orientation of shadows cast by structures in the photo), and the location of the satellite at that same time, as estimated with tracking data maintained by the amateur satellite watching community.

[18][19][20] The off-nadir photograph stands out for its high-resolution (estimated by analysts to be 10 cm or less per pixel), sharpness and lack of atmospheric distortion.