When I encounter this phrase I think of things like the neutrino detector in Antarctica, which of course isn't affected by satellites at all. How much contemporary astronomy relies on visible-light telescopy?
A very large fraction. Optical is still the most important band, probably followed by radio, x-ray, IR and gamma ray in that order. And less then 10% of optical is done using satellites.
When I encounter this phrase I think of things like the neutrino detector in Antarctica, which of course isn't affected by satellites at all. How much contemporary astronomy relies on visible-light telescopy?