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Sean O’Keefe, the NASA administrator who named the telescope in 2002, mentioned in an e mail that Webb was “a champion of schooling, know-how, science, aeronautics and human exploration.”
“Arguably, had been it not for James Webb’s dedication to satisfy essentially the most audacious imaginative and prescient of his time, our capability to discover as we speak could be starkly completely different,” Mr. O’Keefe mentioned. “He launched advanced methods administration — a self-discipline to harness the distinctive technical functionality of NASA at the moment.” Mr. O’Keefe added that he was unaware of any proof that Webb was accountable for the Lavender Scare.
In Might, NASA promised a full investigation by its appearing chief historian, Brian Odom. On Sept. 27, the company issued a press release from the present NASA administrator, Invoice Nelson, saying, “We’ve got discovered no proof at the moment that warrants altering the title of the James Webb Area Telescope.” Since then, no intensive report has been forthcoming.
This has infuriated many astronomers, and a few 1,200 have signed a petition calling for the telescope to be renamed. “Below Webb’s management, queer individuals had been persecuted,” the petition reads, partly. “Those that would excuse Webb’s failure of management can’t concurrently award him credit score for his administration of Apollo.”
On listening to Mr. Nelson’s announcement, Dr. Walkowicz abruptly resigned their publish on the NASA Astrophysics Advisory Committee. “This flippant, pathetic response to the very cheap questions raised by the astronomical group relating to JWST’s title sends a transparent message of NASA’s place on the rights of queer astronomers,” they wrote in a web-based assertion. “It additionally speaks clearly to me that NASA doesn’t deserve my time.”
In an e mail, Dr. Prescod-Weinstein mentioned she was pissed off on the lack of promised transparency. Furthermore, she mentioned, the declare of “no proof” was too robust, because it steered that Webb was not accountable for the homophobia — well-documented — that his group promulgated throughout his tenure at NASA.
“If he’s not accountable for the dangerous stuff that occurred whereas he was in cost, why is he accountable for the great things?” Dr. Prescod-Weinstein mentioned. “It appears there’s a little bit of double-think occurring right here, the place individuals assign him accountability for the issues they like about his legacy and fake that he’s solely accountable for the issues they like.”
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