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Exclusive: Documents reveal NASA’s internal struggles over renaming Webb telescope

E-mails show agency’s controversial response to astronomers concerned about past LGBT+ discrimination.
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  1. Alexandra Witze
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Internal NASA documents obtained by Nature reveal fresh details about the agency’s investigation last year into whether to rename its flagship James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). A group of astronomers had led a community petition to change the name, alleging that the telescope’s namesake, former NASA chief James Webb, had been complicit in the persecution and firing of gay and lesbian federal employees during his career in the US government in the 1950s and 1960s.

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Nature 604, 15-16 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00845-6

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  1. Internal NASA documents obtained by Nature

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