Short answers, pulled from the story.
American theoretical astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer proposed placing a telescope in outer space in 1946. His paper argued that a telescope above Earth's atmosphere would not be hindered by atmospheric distortion, absorption, or scattering of light. Spitzer is known as the "father of Hubble" for this foundational contribution.
The first operational space telescopes were the American Orbiting Astronomical Observatory OAO-2, launched in 1968, and the Soviet Orion 1 ultraviolet telescope, which flew aboard space station Salyut 1 in 1971. Both predated the Hubble Space Telescope by roughly two decades.
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched on the 24th of April 1990 by the Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-31. Nancy Grace Roman, the first Chief of Astronomy and first female executive at NASA, played a central role in convincing NASA and the U.S. Congress that Hubble was "very well worth doing."
Space telescopes orbit above Earth's atmosphere, which blocks X-rays and largely blocks infrared and ultraviolet radiation. They also avoid atmospheric distortion, light pollution, and the blurring effect known as twinkling. For wavelengths outside the visible and radio windows, space-based observation is the only viable option.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory and the XMM-Newton observatory are positioned above the atmosphere to detect X-rays, which cannot penetrate Earth's atmosphere. The International Ultraviolet Explorer, now deactivated, was stationed in space to observe ultraviolet radiation for the same reason.
On the 16th of January 2023, NASA announced preliminary considerations for the Great Observatory Technology Maturation Program, the Habitable Worlds Observatory, and the New Great Observatories initiative. Scientists have warned that gaps in coverage between retiring and future observatories could affect fundamental scientific research.