It was being studied well before that. I think Tony Tyson had the design in the 90s. I know serious work started around 2003 with the creation of LSST Corporati

It was being studied well before that. I think Tony Tyson had the design in the 90s. I know serious work started around 2003 with the creation of LSST Corporation. Funding dripped in with some stimulus aid, and then ~2014 was when much of the funding started to come in for construction. I don’t recall when the original operations date was anticipated to be, but I know they probably thought it’d be online in ~2017 in the 2000s. Before Covid, it was 2023 ish.