James Webb in the lead NASA in the 1950s and 60s, during the Cold War “Lavender Fear,” when government agencies often enforced discriminatory policies against gay and lesbian federal employees. . For that reason, astronomers and others have long since Calling on NASA to change its name afterward James Webb . Space Telescope. Earlier this year, the space agency agreed to complete a full investigation into Webb’s suspected role in the treatment and firing of LGBTQ employees.
This afternoon, NASA released the long-awaited report by the agency’s chief historian Brian Odom. In one comes Press Release, NASA officials made it clear that the agency would not change the telescope’s name, writing: “Based on existing evidence, the agency has no plans to change the name of the James Webb Space Telescope. . However, the report makes clear that this period in federal policy—and more broadly in American history—was a dark chapter that does not reflect the values of the agency today.”
Odom was tasked with finding out what evidence, if any, links Webb to homophobic policies and decisions. Tracking evidence of controversial events 60 years ago has become a difficult subject to study, Odom said, but he was able to gather a wealth of documents from the National Archives in College Park, Maryland and the Truman Library. “I took this investigation very seriously,” he said.
These allegations include those of NASA employee Clifford Norton, who File a lawsuit claimed that he was fired in 1963 after he was seen sitting in a car with another man. He was detained by police, his lawsuit states, and NASA security forces then took him to agency headquarters and interrogated him throughout the night. He was later fired.
Such treatment of federal employees suspected of being gay or lesbian was common at the time, following President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1953 executive order, which listed “the sexual perversion” among the types of behavior considered suspicious. However, the NASA report said: “There is no evidence that Webb was aware of Norton firing at the time. Because that’s policy accepted throughout the government, layoffs, which are very likely to happen – although, sadly – are considered no exception.”
NASA’s reports and announcements disappointed critics, who for years have create an instance to change the name of JWST. “At best, Webb has a complex legacy, including his involvement in promoting psychological warfare. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, an astrophysicist at the University of New Hampshire, and three other astronomers and astrophysicists in one statement on Substack today. They question the interpretation that the lack of clear evidence implies that Webb did not know or had a hand in the layoffs within his own agency, writing: “In such a situation, we must allow that he is relatively incompetent as a leader: the administrator of NASA should know whether his chief of security is unlawfully interrogating others.”
Prescod-Weinstein believes that the release of this report—on the Friday afternoon before Thanksgiving—is not a coincidence, but rather a way of making it less widely read. “The fact that they did it even when it was LGBT STEM Day tells you about the priorities of the government,” she wrote in an email to WIRED.
NASA often names telescopes after famous astronomers, like Hubble, nozzle, the Chandra and Compton telescopes. Webb is an exception. He led the agency while it pushed the space program toward the moon landing and promoted astronomy research, but he was an official, not an astronomer.
Although agency officials have called for Webb’s name to be kept, Odom said, “We should still use this history as an example of a traumatic past for many people. This past, whatever Webb’s role in it, is important to us going forward.”
Ralf Danner, an astronomer with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and co-chair of the American Astronomical Society’s committee on sexual orientation and gender minorities in astronomy, said NASA’s decision did not rename the telescope “unsurprising, but disappointing”. Danner argues that whether Webb is aware of Norton’s handling, or whether there is evidence of it, is not really relevant, since Webb advocates for those policies as an administrator. NASA member. “He’s just a misnomer to indicate the future of astronomy.”
