Critics claim his homophobia brought Webb to NASA. For example, during his tenure as administrator of the agency from 1961 to 1968 – a period in which critical preparations were made for the first manned moon landing in 1969 – an allegedly gay employee, Clifford Norton, was questioned for hours by NASA’s chief of security about a sexual incident and eventually dismissed for “immoral, indecent, and shameful conduct.” This incident was one of the reasons for calls for the JWST to be renamed, to which NASA responded with an internal investigation into Webb’s complicity in such actions.
On September 27, 2021, the agency’s current administrator, Bill Nelson, released a one-page statement that said, “We have not found any evidence to warrant changing the name of the James Webb Space Telescope at this time.” As from the now According to published emails, an unknown author clarified as early as April 2021: According to the official who fired Norton, the termination was because his advisors had told him that a dismissal for homosexual behavior was a “custom within the Authority« applies.
Prior to Nelson’s statement, an email dated September 3, 2021 author, also redacted in the document, strongly recommended changing the telescope’s name: “There is no denying that Webb played a leading role during the Lavender Scare,” It is there. “It appears that the entire research effort was hampered from the start by the fact that the goal was to dismiss the criticisms that emerged,” says Lucianne Walkowicz, an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and one of the scientists leading the push to change the JWST name.
In particular, many LGBTQ+ astronomers are annoyed by an episode mentioned in the emails, in which NASA Director Hertz says he contacted more than 10 members of the astrophysics community. However, none of these would have spoken out against the problematic name. However, none of the people identified themselves as LGBTQ+ either. “I have worked closely with Paul Hertz for over a decade and consider him a colleague and mentor,” says Gaudi. “He knows me. He knows I’m gay. But he didn’t ask me. Why not, damn it?”
Webb – not a hate preacher, just a complex character?
NASA’s response to the controversy made it clear that federal agencies rarely use a clear and accountable approach to naming or even renaming high-profile projects. Instead, decisions often appear to be made at the whim of senior officials, with no regard for other interests, including those of the general public. For example, in late 2019, the National Science Foundation renamed its currently-under-construction Large Synoptic Survey Telescope in honor of the late astronomer Vera C. Rubin, who was instrumental in discovering dark matter and championing women in science. According to Matt Mountain, president of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, this change comes from a proposal from the US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology and not from a large popular initiative.
NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, currently under development, was similarly renamed after Nancy Grace Roman, a successful astronomer and NASA’s first female executive, although in this case the agency has a formal policy for the assignment of names for major projects followed. Most NASA name changes happened before a project was completed or launched, but there are precedents for post-launch changes as well. The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer was renamed Neil Gehrel’s Swift Observatory, after the mission’s late former research director, while the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project was renamed after meteorologist Verner E. Suomi three months after its launch.