Pleas from users, scientist in the US and Europe, were ignored. An understanding of Frontier Theory helps underline the significance of this decision process. The Compton Observatory is not, technically speaking, on a frontier. While the design and construction of the facility in the 1980s pushed technological frontiers, it was built to search beyond the frontier in the role of an explorer. An explorer can be defined as an agent gathering hitherto unknown information beyond the bounds of civilization and its frontiers.
Every frontier has agents seeking new paths of knowledge in the wilderness.
However, exploration is extremely expensive and hazardous. With no support infrastructure, even the mildest of errors can cause complex failure chains. Exploration of blind alleys, while essential in the long run, is expensive business with little return on the investment. As a result, explorers are either expendable or financed by pockets so deep that they can afford not to care about the outcome. Explorers are individuals, but financiers tend to be large complex organizations.