https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_C._Rubin_Observatory#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_C._Rubin_Observatory#Hist... Early development was funded by

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_C._Rubin_Observatory#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_C._Rubin_Observatory#Hist... Early development was funded by a number of small grants, with major contributions in January 2008 by software billionaires Charles and Lisa Simonyi and Bill Gates of $20- and $10 million respectively.[30][25] $7.5 million was included in the U.S. President's FY2013 NSF budget request.[31] The Department of Energy is funding construction of the digital camera component by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, as part of its mission to understand dark energy.[32] In the 2010 decadal survey, LSST was ranked as the highest-priority ground-based instrument.[33] NSF funding for the rest of construction was authorized as of 1 August 2014.[17] The lead organizations are:[32] The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to design and construct the LSST camera The National Optical Astronomy Observatory to provide the telescope and site team The National Center for Supercomputing Applications to construct and test the archive and data access center The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy is responsible for overseeing the LSST construction. As of May 2022, the project critical path was the camera installation, integration and testing.[34] In May 2018, Congress surprisingly appropriated much more funding than the telescope had asked for, in hopes of speeding up construction and operation. Telescope management was thankful but unsure this would help, since at the late stage of construction they were not cash-limited.[35] 10m Video on the construction, mentioning "twenty years, over a billion dollars." https://youtube.com/watch?v=kpdLDJXEmys https://youtube.com/watch?v=kpdLDJXEmys