NASA Will Not Change the James Webb Telescope’s Name

Gay and lesbian federal workers were often discriminated against by the government during the Cold War era. Astronomers have been calling for NASA to change the name of the telescope. The space agency agreed to complete a full investigation into the case of the treatment and firing of employees of the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community. The long-awaited report by the agency's chief historian is out today. In an accompanying press release, NASA officials made clear that the agency will not change the telescope's name. The report shows that this period in federal policy was a dark one that did not reflect the agency's values.

Tracking down evidence of controversial 60-year-old events made for a difficult subject of study, but he was able to draw on plenty of material from the National Archives.

According to the allegations, NASA employee CliffordNorton was fired in 1963, after he was seen in a car with another man. He was taken into police custody, his lawsuit states, and NASA security took him to the agency's headquarters to be questioned. He was no longer employed by his employer.

The treatment of federal employees suspected of being gay or lesbian was commonplace at the time following a 1953 executive order by President Eisenhower. According to the NASA report, no evidence has been found to show that Webb was aware ofNorton's firing. The firing was highly likely because it was accepted policy.

Critics have been making a case to change the name for a long time. He participated in the promotion of psychological warfare. He didn't earn a $10 billion monument because of his activities, according to a group of scientists. They think that the administrator of NASA should know if his chief of staff was incompetent because of the lack of explicit evidence.

Prescod-Weinstein thinks the timing of the release is a way to make the report less popular. She told WIRED that the fact that they did it shows the priorities of the administration.

The Hubble Telescope is one of the telescopes that NASA names. It's an exception, that's for sure. He was not an astronomer, but he was the leader of the agency that advanced the space program towards the moon landing.

Even though agency officials wanted to keep the name, they should use it as an example of a traumatic past. It is important for us to know what Webb was involved in.

The American Astronommical Society's committee for sexual orientation and gender minorities in astronomy was disappointed that NASA chose not to change the telescope's name. Danner argues that there is no relevance to whether or not Webb knew ofNorton's treatment. He isn't the right name to show the future of astronomy