NASA/CHRIS GUNN the James Webb Space Telescope, Which Is Scheduled to Launch This Year

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The world this week News in focus NASA/CHRIS GUNN The James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch this year. NASA INVESTIGATES RENAMING TELESCOPE OVER ANTI-LGBT+ CLAIMS Some astronomers argue that the flagship James Webb Space Telescope will memorialize discrimination. Others are waiting for more evidence.

By Alexandra Witze judgement until the agency has finished an actions, according to agency officials. Only internal investigation. after the investigation concludes will NASA ASA is considering whether to rename The JWST, which will peer into the distant decide what to do. its flagship astronomical observa- reaches of the cosmos, is NASA’s biggest astro- “We must make a conscious decision,” Paul tory, given reports alleging that nomical project in decades, so the stakes are Hertz, head of NASA’s astrophysics division, James Webb, after whom it is named, high. In May, citing Webb’s purported involve- told an agency advisory committee on 29 June. was involved in persecuting gay and ment in discrimination, four prominent “We must be transparent with the community Nlesbian people during his career in govern- astronomers launched a petition to change and with the public for the rationale for which- ment. Keeping his name on the US$8.8-billion the telescope’s name. It has amassed at least ever decision we make.” James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) — set to 1,250 signatories, including scientists who Former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe launch later this year — would glorify bigotry have been awarded observing time on the named the JWST after Webb in 2002, when and anti-LGBT+ sentiment, say some astron- telescope. the telescope was in the early stages of devel- omers. But others say there is not yet enough NASA’s acting chief historian, Brian Odom, is opment. It was a unilateral decision that took evidence against Webb, who was head of NASA working with a non-agency historian to review many by surprise, because NASA’s telescopes from 1961 to 1968, and they are withholding archival documents about Webb’s policies and are typically named after scientists. Webb, who

News in focus was fired from his job at NASA because he was suspected to be gay in 1963, when Webb was NASA administrator. “We believe the known historical record speaks clearly in favour of renaming the telescope,” they say. NASA has given no estimate of when its investigation might be complete. Odom says that the COVID-19 pandemic has limited his- torians’ access to archival records.

Broader reckoning The push to rename the telescope falls into the broader reckoning over naming buildings, facilities and other objects after questionable historical figures. Last year, an aerospace executive began an as-yet unsuccessful effort to rename a NASA centre in Mississippi that is named after John Stennis, a senator who voted repeatedly in favour of racial segregation in the 1960s. The JWST debate comes near the end of a

NASA long and exhausting push to launch the obser- James Webb was NASA’s second-ever administrator, running the agency from 1961 to 1968. vatory into space. Originally conceived in 1989 as the successor to the iconic Hubble Space died in 1992, was a public servant who held sev- York City. “The records clearly show that Webb Telescope, the craft is many years behind eral administrative roles in the US government. planned and participated in meetings during schedule and billions of dollars over budget. O’Keefe chose the name because Webb had which he handed over homophobic material,” To some, the telescope’s potential to trans- advocated that NASA keep science as a key the petition leaders wrote earlier this year in form astronomy makes it even more important part of its portfolio in the 1960s, even as the an opinion piece in Scientific American (see that the JWST carry a name that reflects mod- Apollo programme of human space explora- go.nature.com/3ycghs1). ern values. “For me, it really comes down to tion soaked up most of the agency’s attention The four astronomers are Lucianne Walkow- what kind of message we want to send to the and budget. O’Keefe tells Nature he was not icz at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Illinois; more junior folks and students in our field,” aware of the accusations when he picked the Chanda Prescod-Weinstein at the University says Peter Gao, a planetary scientist at the Uni- name, and he supports keeping it unless more of New Hampshire in Durham; Brian Nord at versity of California, Santa Cruz. “The people information surfaces. “Without James Webb’s the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in we choose to celebrate by naming our tele- leadership, there may have been no telescope Batavia, Illinois; and Sarah Tuttle at the Univer- scopes after them is a reflection of our values.” or much of anything else at NASA noteworthy sity of Washington in Seattle. “We felt that we The final decision lies with NASA adminis- of a naming controversy,” he says. should take a public stand on naming such an trator Bill Nelson, who has not said anything important facility after someone whose values publicly on the matter. There is no clear list Searching the archives were so questionable,” they write in an e-mail of alternative names, although many people As Webb was beginning his career with the US to Nature. “It’s time for NASA to stand up and have made unofficial suggestions. Walkowicz government in the late 1940s, gay and lesbian be on the right side of history.” and the other astronomers who are leading employees were being systematically rooted David Johnson, a historian at the University the petition suggest naming it after Harriet out and fired because of their sexual orien- of South Florida in Tampa who wrote the 2004 Tubman, the formerly enslaved woman who tation — a campaign encouraged by several book The Lavender Scare, says he knows of no fought to end slavery in the United States in prominent members of Congress. The period evidence that Webb led or instigated persecu- the nineteenth century and used the stars to is known as the lavender scare, echoing the tion. Webb did attend a White House meeting guide Black people to freedom. anti-communist ‘red scare’ with which it was Some astronomers who plan to use the often intertwined. During the lavender scare, “The people we choose to JWST are already thinking about what they gay people were cast, untruthfully, as perverts will do if the telescope is not renamed. One who might be desperate to keep their sexual celebrate by naming our idea is to acknowledge LGBT+ rights in the orientation secret and thus be susceptible to telescopes after them is a acknowledgements sections of papers pub- revealing government secrets under black- reflection of our values.” lished using JWST data, says Johanna Teske, mail. Its epicentre was the Department of an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for State, which handles foreign policy. Science in Washington DC. The four astronomers leading the renam- on the threat allegedly posed by gay people, Many are keen to see what the NASA investi- ing petition say that, from 1949 to 1952, when but the context of the meeting was to contain gation might unearth. “It’s important to look Webb worked for the state department in the the hysteria that members of Congress were at what happened and what the facts are,” says high-ranking position of undersecretary, he stirring up. “I don’t see him as having any sort Rolf Danner, an astronomer at NASA’s Jet Pro- passed a set of memos discussing what was of leadership role in the lavender scare,” says pulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, described as “the problem of homosexuals Johnson. who is chair of the American Astronomical and sex perverts” to a senator who was leading Walkowicz and their colleagues note that as Society’s committee on sexual orientation the persecution. They point to records found a leader, Webb bore responsibility for discrim- and gender minorities in astronomy. “And in the US National Archives by astronomer inatory policies enacted at his agency. They then really ask ourselves — would we make Adrian Lucy at Columbia University in New also note the case of Clifford Norton, who that choice again?”