Except it would have to have been done remotely. All equipment, setup, etc. done via 1980s control and AI technology. Probably several failures until they got it right, we all know it wouldn’t have got past the first failure. You say set it up with a Moon base as the staging area. Given the mentality that’s existed since the 1970s, the first death would have shut that effort down. Sometimes it’s hard to believe any of our ancestors ever ventured out of their squalid village.
No biggy. Even my tiny optical observatory can be operated remotely from inside my home.