[rowinofwin]

I disagree. Making a satellite for observing space is great and all but you have a massive turnaround and it is super expensive. A ground based observatory can have upgrades, different equipment, lots and lots of modes of operation, and is much more accessible to the public. Sure it would be nice to have satellites with various spectra of analysis and it would be great for that to happen sooner, but the number of ground assets which have been impacted is very high and science gas been set back because of it.

Will this pay off? Eventually very likely it will. Will it be soon? Probably not, and while making space cheaper to access is great it is not a universal good. Remember that if a satellite has a collision we could be in for a cascade of awful and we could lose those satellites we were aiming to benefit from. Maybe if we had some much further away satellites I would agree, but LEO is becoming quite crowded and the benefit is not being shared around, it is enriching and small number of wealthy people.