A New Film Challenges the James Webb Telescope's Controversial Name

Space experts are featured in a documentary who support a name change. Updating the telescope's name "would help send the message that NASA in its current era does not tolerate the same sort of intolerance that was present in the '50s, '60s and '70s", according to a documentarian. Audra Wolfe is the author of the book, Freedom's Laboratory: The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science.

In the film, Rolf Danner says that NASA has had open calls for suggested names for spacecraft and rovers over the past 20 years, and that it has picked figures that are significant and can show us where we want to go. He doesn't agree with NASA's name for its first Mars rover and its upcoming telescope named for astronomer Nancy Grace Roman.

The telescope was called the Next Generation Space Telescope when work began. NASA usually names space telescopes after prominent astronomer, like they did with the Hubble and the Chandra telescopes. The new instrument will be named after a man who was in charge of the agency during the Apollo program and who did not consult the astronomy community.

It has cast a shadow over the $10 billion name of the astronomer and space fan. If you are a person who iscis and straight in astronomy, then maybe this isn't all that personal to you. The delivery of these first images has been ruined by this.

A group of people, including Walkowicz, called for NASA to change the name of the telescope in a petition signed by more than 1,700 people. A group of people made their case in an opinion piece. The lead author of that piece, Harvard astronomer Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, had for a long time raised concerns on social media about the policies of NASA. They pointed out that NASA chose a name that had Nazi connotations. The agency changed its name the next year.

NASA decided not to change the telescope's name. The agency started an internal investigation in July of 2021. In September, current NASA administrator Bill Nelson told six reporters that there was no evidence to change the name of the James Webb Space Telescope. Walkowicz resigned from the committee. The agency gave no interviews and didn't release any information.