Astronomers have once again called for NASA to rename the James Webb space telescope after the first photographs from the most potent telescope ever sent into space were released, amid claims that Webb participated in the historical persecution of LGBTQ+ people.
The $10 billion telescope bears James Webb’s name, an American official who served as NASA’s second administrator. In the 1960s, Webb oversaw the space agency and, from 1949 to 1952, also held the position of US undersecretary of state.
One of the four scientists coordinating the renaming petition, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, an assistant professor of physics at the University of New Hampshire, tweeted on Monday:
“As one of the people who has been leading the push to change the name, today feels bittersweet, I’m so excited for the new images and so angry at Nasa HQ.
“Nasa leadership has stubbornly refused to acknowledge that what is now public info about JW’s legacy means he does not merit having a great observatory named after him,” she added.
Clifford Norton, a Nasa employee at the time Webb served as administrator, was dismissed in 1963 for engaging in “immoral, obscene, and degrading behaviour” after being questioned on the suspicion of homosexuality. Norton eventually prevailed in his wrongful termination lawsuit.
NASA declared it would not rename the telescope in September of last year. Bill Nelson, the current administrator of NASA, stated in a statement in September that “we have not discovered any information at this time that merits changing the name of the James Webb space telescope.”
400 pages of confidential NASA documents, including a white paper that stated, “Nasa has decided that termination of homosexual staff would be its policy,” were published in March by the magazine Nature. During Webb’s time as administrator, they had the option to either establish or modify that policy.
“A lot of astronomers are very unhappy the observatory is named after him,” wrote the American astronomer Phil Plait in his Bad Astronomy newsletter. “It’s difficult to want to use an instrument when you know you’ll have to write about it using the name of someone who worked to negate your very existence.”
“The observatory will produce amazing science and gorgeous images, certainly the equal of anything Hubble has done,” Plait tweeted. “But it’s named after someone irrevocably tied to bigotry and homophobia, and moreover Nasa has botched the way they handled the situation.”