Behind the Name: James Webb Space Telescope

NASA’s newest space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, recently settled into its final orbit, nearly a million miles away. But controversy over the telescope’s namesake, former NASA Administrator James E. Webb, is still roiling here on Earth. Webb worked at the highest levels of NASA and the U.S. State Department during the notorious Lavender Scare of the 1950s and 60s, when thousands of federal employees were fired for being gay. What was Webb’s role in the Lavender Scare? How should this legacy affect the naming of NASA’s flagship telescope? And what are the implications for LGBTQIA+ astronomers and space scientists in the field today?