[bruckie]

Would cheaper/larger launch vehicles significantly change the economics of deploying space based observatories? The James Webb space telescope has cost about $10 billion, and you can afford even today's largest/most expensive launch vehicle (Delta Heavy) for a relatively small fraction of that ($350M).

[coryrc]

It'd be a lot cheaper if they iterated and could service the machine if needed. Waterfall is the most expensive way of doing something.