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NASA’s adviser resigned after the agency decided to maintain a space telescope named after James Webb.
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Webb was Under Secretary of State when federal gay and lesbian officials were dismissed in the 1950s.
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Lucianne Walkowic said NASA’s decision showed that NASA was “not worth my time.”
NASA’s adviser is a government agency that will continue to name the $ 10 billion space telescope after a former administrator who served as U.S. Secretary of State when federal gay and lesbian personnel were dismissed in the 1940s and 1950s. I resigned after receiving the decision.
Lucian Warkowitch, identified as non-binary, Open letter He told NASA’s Astrophysics Advisory Board (APAC) on Tuesday that the agency resigned as an advisor in a way that handled the request to change the name. James Webb Space Telescope..
Signed by over 1,200 people, including Walkowicz Open petition We are asking you to rename the James Webb Space Telescope. The petition quoted the persecution of gay and lesbian civil servants while Webb was Under Secretary of State from 1949 to 1952. this is,”Lavender scare, “When thousands of federal employees were forced to dismiss or resign due to their sexual orientation.
The public petition also mentions Clifford L. Norton, a former NASA employee who was dismissed in the 1960s after NASA stated that it had done a “home sexual advance” equivalent to “immoral, obscene and shameful behavior.” Did. Justia, A website that maintains an online database of proceedings. The incident that led to Norton’s dismissal occurred when Webb was a NASA administrator.
NASA’s decision to maintain a space telescope named after the Web “sends a clear message of NASA’s position on the rights of strange astronomers,” Wokovich said in an open letter. “I also clearly tell me that NASA isn’t worth my time,” they said.
NASA did not immediately respond to insider comment requests.The agency said NPR On September 30, before Walkowicz resigned, he said it investigated the issue and found no evidence to justify renaming the telescope.
Walkowicz did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Web Run NASA The period from 1961 to 1968 that included the Apollo program. He retired shortly before his first lunar landing in 1969 and died in 1992. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center A web page that many believe Webb “perhaps does more for science than any other government official, and the next-generation space telescope deserves to be named after him.”
On the same day NASA told the media: NPROn the decision not to rename the telescope, Walkowicz said they were attacked by a car. They said in a letter that they are currently on vacation to recover from the injury.
The space telescope, which is estimated to cost nearly $ 10 billion, will take the time to scan the universe in search of life-hosting planets and photograph the former insider Morgan McFall Johnson’s Big Bang. Expected to look back. report.. The telescope completed the test in August, Arrive at the launch site French Guiana Tuesday. Scheduled to be released on December 18th.
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