> Not having massive telescopes on the ground where you can fiddle with your instrumentation and take advantage of apertures and construction techniques simply

> Not having massive telescopes on the ground where you can fiddle with your instrumentation and take advantage of apertures and construction techniques simply not possible in space _is_ a deal-breaker. Why do you think telescopes in space - where they don't need to fight gravity just to stand - can't soon, with reasonable development, surpass land-based ones in capabilities?