An adviser for NASA wrote an open letter on Tuesday on why they decided to quit after a request to change the name of the James Webb Space Telescope was denied by the agency.
Lucianne Walkowicz, who is nonbinary, wrote that they were resigning “because NASA’s handling of the questions regarding James Webb as a choice for naming its next flagship mission has made a farce of this [NASA Astrophysics Advisory] committee.”
The letter was also sent to NASA Astrophysics Advisory Committee.
A petition circulated earlier this year calling for the name of the James Webb Space Telescope to be changed. The telescope is named after former NASA administrator James Webb, who also served in a high-level role at the State Department. Critics say he allowed for the dismissal of gay and lesbian federal employees, including in the instance of Clifford Norton who worked at NASA, NPR reported.
The efforts to change the name were unsuccessful, with NASA telling NPR that after investigating the issue, the name of the telescope would not be renamed.
“We have found no evidence at this time that warrants changing the name of the James Webb Space Telescope,” NASA administrator Bill NelsonClarence (Bill) William NelsonNASA won’t rename James Webb Space Telescope despite controversy FAA unveils new system to reduce planes’ times on taxiway Technology is easy but politics is hard for NASA’s Lunar Human Landing System MORE told the radio news outlet.
Walkowicz — who has an asteroid named after them — said that the response by the agency to not consider changing the name ”sends a clear message of NASA’s position on the rights of queer astronomers. It also speaks clearly to me that NASA does not deserve my time.”
“After the past year and a half we’ve had with not only the pandemic, but also national grappling with issues of racism and human rights, it boggles the mind that NASA has so little insight into its own participation in systematic oppression,” they added in their letter. “What, for example, does it mean for NASA Headquarters to rename its address to “Hidden Figures Way”, when NASA itself hid the figures of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, and Mary Jackson to begin with?”
James Webb Space Telescope during testing in 2017. Image: NASA/Desiree Stover
Astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz has resigned from a NASA advisory committee on account of the space agency’s perceived mishandling of a request to rename the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. Webb was a NASA administrator during the 1960s who aided in the persecution of LGBTQ employees.
It’s fair to say that Lucianne Walkowicz, an astronomer from the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, is seriously upset right now—and for good reason. On September 28, the same day Walkowicz was struck by a car, they learned that NASA had decided, for reasons not made clear, that there was insufficient reason to rename the soon-to-be-launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). In response, Walkowicz penned a caustic open letter to NASA announcing their resignation from the NASA Astrophysics Advisory Committee (APAC), a resignation that took effect October 12.
For NASA, this represents a serious loss. As a scientist, Walkowicz has contributed to our understanding of stellar activity and how it impacts the atmospheres of potentially habitable exoplanets and the potential for human activity on Mars. Walkowicz has even had an asteroid named after them.
That Walkowicz wants to move on from NASA is wholly understandable. James Webb (1906-1992) enforced anti-gay policies at the U.S. State Department and at NASA, where he served as administrator from 1961 to 1968. Former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe came up with the idea of naming the telescope after Webb nearly 20 years ago. Earlier this year, a petition asked that NASA rename the next-gen telescope given Webb’s involvement in the Lavender Scare—a time when queer government employees were dismissed or forced to resign.
NASA responded by launching an investigation into the matter. APAC had been asking NASA for updates, but the committee was told to wait for the results of the investigation, which the space agency described as being “thorough.” Abruptly and with minimal detail, NASA announced on September 28 that no further actions would be taken, saying the investigators “found no evidence at this time that warrants changing the name.”
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NASA was very subdued about the matter, speaking only to reporters at NPR (as best I can tell) and refraining from issuing a formal statement. Writing in their open letter, Walkowicz described NASA’s decision to “quietly email just a few selected journalists” as being “flippant” and “pathetic.” Walkowicz writes that the tepid response speaks to larger issues at the space agency:
It is evident from this choice that any promises of transparency and thoroughness were, in fact, lies. It also seems clear that NASA would prefer a committee of Yes Men, a committee that co-signs things that NASA had already planned to do, or perhaps chides them about moderate course corrections that don’t actually challenge NASA at all. It is also clear that while Sean O’Keefe can just suggest James Webb as a telescope namesake because he thinks it’s a nice idea, queer people are required to justify their opinions via an investigation.
Walkowicz said they weren’t optimistic about the name change, especially given that current NASA administrator Bill Nelson was opposed to same-sex marriage until 2013.
NASA’s response “sends a clear message” about the space agency’s position on the “rights of queer astronomers,” wrote Walkowicz, and “it also speaks clearly to me that NASA does not deserve my time.” They’re vexed that “NASA has so little insight into its own participation in systematic oppression,” citing the racial injustices portrayed in the film Hidden Figures.
“Of course, I am not the first queer person to be actively discouraged from NASA service,” wrote Walkowicz, “But I’m not the first and won’t be the last driven out of a NASA space, where evidently straight people’s opinions are valued and taken more seriously than queer people’s experiences.”
Looking ahead, Walkowicz said they will refrain from referring to the space telescope by its official name, and they’re encouraging others to do the same. Meanwhile, the struggle to rename the telescope after Harriet Tubman continues.
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The fully assembled James Webb Space Telescope.Image: NASA
The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to launch later this year, and NASA has no intention to rename the instrument despite complaints that it’s named after a man who presided over the firings of gay and lesbian government employees, NPR reports.
In just a few months, finger’s crossed, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will park itself in the second Earth-Sun Lagrange point, from where it will gaze upon the cosmos. Far from the noise and clutter of low Earth orbit, the $10 billion telescope will peer at ancient galaxies, dust disks around stars, and the atmospheres of distant exoplanets. Profoundly, JWST even has the potential to detect biosignatures consistent with alien life.
But for each mind-bending discovery this telescope is certain to make, we’ll have to cringe at its unfortunate name and link to the Lavender Scare—a despicable era in American history when gay and lesbian government employees were fired or forced to resign on account of their sexuality. James Webb, NASA administrator from 1961 to 1968, actively participated in the Lavender Scare, yet the most powerful space telescope ever built was named in his honor.
Upon being asked to change the name, NASA launched an investigation to learn about Webb’s role during the Lavender Scare. The now-concluded investigation apparently found nothing deemed serious enough to take action.
“We have found no evidence at this time that warrants changing the name of the James Webb Space Telescope,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson told NPR.
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The space agency provided few details, aside from saying historians were consulted on the matter. Karen Fox, a senior science communications officer at NASA, echoed Nelson’s words when speaking to NPR, saying: “We’ve done as much as we can do at this point and have exhausted our research efforts,” but those efforts “have not uncovered evidence warranting a name change.”
Artist’s depiction of the JWST in space. Illustration: NASA
James Webb (1906-1992) was a key figure during NASA’s Mercury and Gemini programs, which set the stage for the crewed Apollo missions to the Moon. His contributions to space exploration are not in question, but his actions as a public servant most certainly are.
The name for the telescope was chosen by former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe. He actually broke with tradition, as telescopes are typically named after prominent scientists. Neither O’Keefe nor Webb come from scientific backgrounds. The decision to name the telescope happened in 2002, but it wasn’t until 2015 that criticisms of the name began to emerge. Dan Savage, a relationship and sex advice columnist and gay rights activist, kickstarted the conversation in his article, “Should NASA Name a Telescope After a Dead Guy Who Persecuted Gay People in the 1950s?”
“Webb didn’t just ascribe to the prevailing anti-gay prejudices; he enforced them and, again, destroyed careers and lives in the process,” wrote Savage, who was content to let the name stay. “We have so much to fight for right now, so much work to do, that going after a dead guy seems like a distraction we can’t afford. It’s also likely to be a battle we would lose. So I’m thinking we let this guy have his telescope,” he said.
The issue escalated earlier this year following the launch of a petition, which has since been signed by over 1,200 people. The petition asked that NASA rename the space telescope, given Webb’s actions while working for the U.S. State Department and NASA.
“Archival evidence clearly indicates that Webb was in high-level conversations regarding the creation of this [anti-gay] policy and resulting actions,” according to the petition, adding that it was “under Webb’s leadership” that “queer people were persecuted.”
An article published in Scientific American this past March forcefully argued for a name change, but to no avail. “The records clearly show that Webb planned and participated in meetings during which he handed over homophobic material. There is no record of him choosing to stand up for the humanity of those being persecuted,” those authors wrote.
NASA, it would seem, would like to see this controversy fade away and not have to go through the hassle and expense of renaming a telescope that’s supposed to launch in December. Still, NASA should be more forthcoming about the investigation and do a better job of explaining its reasoning to the general public.
So the name will remain, and we’ll find ourselves repeating it ceaselessly over the coming years—but that doesn’t mean we have to like it.
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