Short-term, this is a great way for SpaceX to play nice with astronomers who have been pissed about Starlink satellites photo bombing their shots. Long-term, as

Short-term, this is a great way for SpaceX to play nice with astronomers who have been pissed about Starlink satellites photo bombing their shots. Long-term, astronomy is really going to benefit from increased access to space! As launch costs approach zero, distributed space telescopes with unique properties become viable, not just monsters like JWST. I couldn't find an estimate of just JWST's launch cost. Bundled with a couple other parts of the project, it was 700 million euros (https://www.planetary.org/articles/cost-of-the-jwst https://www.planetary.org/articles/cost-of-the-jwst).