Now who is regretting retiring the Blackbird?
Is there a replacement? (Don’t answer that. We don’t have a “need to know”.)
“Is there a replacement?”
Even the satellite tech we had contemporaneous with the Blackbird’s last decade was a very decent stand-in. What we have in orbit these days, I don’t precisely know, but sensor and imaging tech have come a long ways further.
Wouldn’t surprise me if they can point Hubble wherever they want, as well.
It’s entirely possible that the black birds had additional functionality which was not widely known even after their retirement.
I bet there is one, but its unmanned ...