The US absolutely could've built 5 Hubbles - because it did, they just don't look at Space - they look at Earth. The Hubble is basically a KH-11 spy sat chassis

The US absolutely could've built 5 Hubbles - because it did, they just don't look at Space - they look at Earth. The Hubble is basically a KH-11 spy sat chassis. NASA was given a gentle suggestion that if the optics package was a particular size, there was definitely a company in the US which could polish lens and mirror packages of exactly that size. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-11_KENNEN https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-11_KENNEN