Comment by defrost

Again: Radio astronomy.

> universities spending billions of taxpayer money to carve up mountains in Peru to build telescopes on top

Which university and telescope are you talking about?

> Those are not cheaper than space telescopes would be.

In general, they are - take a ground based telescopes costs, now harden it for space (extra cost), now "do the right stuff" to ensure it will work in isolation (more cost), and now package it it and launch it (more cost again).