This article was originally published on The conversation. (opens in a new tab) The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Editorials and Perspectives (opens in a new tab).
Alice Gorman (opens in a new tab)Associate Professor of Archeology and Space Studies, Flinders University
The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are stunning. With its deep infrared eyes, the telescope illuminates regions of the universe with clarity never seen before.
The telescope is a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. More than 300 (opens in a new tab) universities, companies, space agencies and organizations are involved.
In the excitement, it’s easy to forget that the Webb Telescope has been the subject of controversy. It is named after a NASA administrator who was associated (opens in a new tab) with the persecution of homosexual people in the “Lavender Scare” of the 1950s and 1960s.
‘Behind the Name: James Webb Space Telescope’ shines a light on the troubled legacy of the observatory’s namesake, James Webb, who led NASA during the Cold War and many say was actively involved in the purge homosexual employees by the federal government. pic.twitter.com/B7sywTrUVWJuly 15, 2022
Read more: A cosmic time machine: how the James Webb Space Telescope lets us see the first galaxies in the universe (opens in a new tab)
Who was James E. Webb?
James Edwin Webb was born in 1906 (opens in a new tab) in North Carolina. He earned degrees in education and law (opens in a new tab) and spent time in the US Marine Corps.
He held a senior position in the State Department from 1949 until the early 1950s.
In 1961, US President John F. Kennedy appointed (opens in a new tab) Webb as NASA administrator, the second (opens in a new tab) since the creation of the agency in 1958.
In this role, he was responsible for the Apollo program (opens in a new tab) landing humans on the moon. He was very successful in lobbying for congressional support and also guided NASA through the difficult aftermath of an incident in which three Apollo 1 astronauts lost their lives. (opens in a new tab) in a ground capsule shot.
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Webb pushed for science to be a priority in the Cold War environment, where every space mission was a political tool. He also promoted (opens in a new tab) “psychological warfare (opens in a new tab)” (or propaganda).
Webb left NASA in 1968 (opens in a new tab) before Apollo 11 flew to the moon. Later in life, he served on various advisory boards and was involved with the Smithsonian Institution, America’s flagship group of museums, education and research centers. He died in 1992.
What is “Lavender Scare?”
During the Cold War, Western capitalist democracies feared communist infiltration. This became known as “Red Scare (opens in a new tab).”The “fear of lavender (opens in a new tab)“was embroiled in this paranoia.
Proponents of these ideas have argued (opens in a new tab) that due to the social stigma attached to their sexuality, LGBTQ+ people were at risk of being blackmailed into becoming Soviet spies. From the late 1940s, under the influence of Republican politician Joseph McCarthy (opens in a new tab)LGBTQ+ people were purged (opens in a new tab) US government employment.
Webb’s exact role in Lavender Scare is hotly debated. Several astronomers petition (opens in a new tab) to get the telescope renamed noted that Webb (while at the State Department) was involved in high-level Lavender Scare policy meetings.
In a Scientific American article (opens in a new tab) last year, authors led by cosmologist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein wrote,
“The records clearly show that Webb planned and participated in meetings in which he handed over homophobic material. There is no record of his choice to defend the humanity of those who are persecuted.”
But according to an article in Nature 2021 (opens in a new tab)“David Johnson, a historian at the University of South Florida in Tampa who wrote the 2004 book The Lavender Scare, says he knows of no evidence that Webb directed or instigated the persecution. Webb attended a White House meeting about the threat allegedly posed by gay men, but the context of the meeting was to contain the hysteria members of Congress were stirring up “I don’t see him having a leadership role in the Lavender Scare” , said Johnson.
Is it better if Webb passively enforces policies rather than leading the persecution? Other departments actively opposed (opens in a new tab) the investigation and firing of LGBTQ+ employees.
Echoes of controversy
Space instruments are usually named through a consultation process, often with the public invited to contribute their ideas. It is also not uncommon for the names of spacecraft to be changed. For example, the 1991 Gamma Ray Observatory (opens in a new tab) was renamed after physicist Arthur Holly Compton (opens in a new tab) after its launch.
The name of the Webb telescope would have been chosen (opens in a new tab) by NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe in 2002.
Official NASA response (opens in a new tab) to the controversy is that there is “no evidence at this point to justify changing the name of the telescope”.
Whatever Webb’s role in Lavender Scare, the question for some observers seems to come down to whether he was personally homophobic.
Framing the problem in this way echoes another controversy: the complicity of German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun (opens in a new tab) in the Third Reich.
Von Braun, who was a Nazi Party member and SS officer (opens in a new tab)played a central role in the US space program.
Today, NASA mentions von Braun’s Nazi past on its website (opens in a new tab). But space historian Michael J. Neufeld says (opens in a new tab) “his Nazi record was not widely known until after his death.”
Many excuse von Braun’s political allegiance by arguing that he just wanted to launch rockets into space.
Read more: Two experts break down the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope and explain what we’ve already learned (opens in a new tab)
Where to go from here?
The James Webb Space Telescope is a touchstone for the problems that have come to light lately.
For example, there has been a backlash against the commemoration of colonial “heroes” who perpetrated violence against indigenous and enslaved people, resulting in the toppling of statues around the world. (opens in a new tab).
Some decry the idea of inclusiveness as the ultimate in “wake-up calls”. Others argue that maintaining historical barriers to participation in science – based on race, class, gender and disability – means we are losing potential talent.
Science aims to be objective and without prejudice. In reality, scientists and science administrators are people like everyone else, with their own ideologies and flaws.
The question is whether we judge them by the standards of their time or by those we hold today.
In the end, perhaps we should remember that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (opens in a new tab) proclaims that space belongs to everything humanity.
This article is republished from The conversation (opens in a new tab) under Creative Commons license. Read it original article (opens in a new tab).
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