Yes pretty pictures with an absolute HUGE price tag. Meanwhile rover, orbiter, and lander data cheap, useful for future manned missions, science helps in understanding Earth and its development more than pretty space pictures.
I agree that SLS is utter fantasy. Anything involving ATK needs to go. Tho I MIGHT have more hope for it if the rumored LRB side to it comes around.
Yet just throwing 300M (BTW not even close to how much it will take to launch even one of these telescopes) of it's budget towards pretty pictures isnt a solution at all. If anything that 300M should go towards aeronautical research which lately seems to have been NASA's best contribution.
No. I must disagree. Nasa cotributing $300 mill to be the first couple of launches on Falcon Heavy would do more than loft a couple of telescopes to orbit. It would provide a subsidy for FH and make it way more likely to succeed. Plus if they do make it to orbit we have cool telescopes to provide the masses with pretty pictures. So they support space science. Most of the sheeple equate all soace stuff to the same thing and will help the cause. This is good PR!