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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, expertise, science, aeronautics and human exploration.”“Arguably, have been it not for James Webb’s dedication to meet essentially the most audacious imaginative and prescient of his time, our capability to discover right this moment could be starkly totally different,” Mr. O’Keefe mentioned. “He launched advanced programs 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 answerable for the Lavender Scare.In Could, 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 presently that warrants altering the title of the James Webb House Telescope.” Since then, no in depth 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. “Beneath Webb’s management, queer individuals have been persecuted,” the petition reads, partially. “Those that would excuse Webb’s failure of management can not 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 neighborhood 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 advised that Webb was not answerable for the homophobia — well-documented — that his workforce promulgated throughout his tenure at NASA.“If he’s not answerable for the unhealthy stuff that occurred whereas he was in cost, why is he answerable for the great things?” Dr. Prescod-Weinstein mentioned. “It appears there’s a little bit of double-think taking place right here, the place individuals assign him duty for the issues they like about his legacy and fake that he’s solely answerable for the issues they like.”
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