NASA won’t rename James Webb space telescope despite controversy

NASA says it has no plans to rename the James Webb Space Telescope, which is named after a former administrator who authorized the government to discriminate against lesbian and gay employees.

Speaking to NPR, administrator of NASA Bill NelsonClarence (Bill) William Nelson NASA Won’t Rename James Webb Space Telescope Despite Controversy FAA Unveils New System To Reduce Airplane Time On Taxiway Technology Is Easy But Politics Is Hard For The Human Landing System lunar from NASA PLUS said: “We have not found any evidence at this time to justify changing the name of the James Webb Space Telescope.”

The telescope is considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and is expected to be launched by the end of this year.

However, more than a thousand people signed a petition earlier this year calling for the telescope to be renamed because Webb was allegedly complicit in the purge of LGBT people from government service, known as from “Fear of Lavender”.

The letter states that “under Webb’s leadership, gay people have been persecuted. Those who excuse Webb’s failure in leadership cannot simultaneously give him credit for his handling of Apollo.”

After the letter was made public, NASA opened an investigation to investigate the allegation against Webb.

Senior Science Communications Officer Karen Fox told NPR: “We’ve done everything we can at this point and have exhausted our research efforts. “

“These efforts failed to uncover any evidence to justify a name change,” she added.

NPR noted that the decision to name the telescope after Webb – which breaks with the tradition of naming telescopes after famous scientists – was made by former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe.

O’Keefe, who like Webb also does not come from a scientific background, said he decided to name the telescope Webb after an informal conversation with other employees of the NASA and said others seemed to like the idea. Although surprised by the outrage, O’Keefe said he understood the concern.

“This is an important historical question, to understand how we could have tolerated the purge of talented professionals on the basis of their personal preferences,” O’Keefe told NPR. “It is so reprehensible. There is no doubt about it, and I applaud the effort to bring out the visibility and awareness of it.”

However, he added that he had not seen any evidence to suggest Webb was directly involved in purging LGBT people from government jobs.