NASA was right not to do it.
On the other hand, I never thought it should have been named for him in the first place, and not because of the “Lavender Scare” thing. It just didn’t seem appropriate.
7 thoughts on “Renaming The Webb Telescope”
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Looks like Politico put a little counter programming in the web address.
Maybe we should just stop the naming of these projects after people? That way we won’t have to worry about their wrongthink being discovered in the future.
National scientific projects should be named after prominent scientists, never politicians or bureaucrats. For that matter, nothing involving taxpayer money should be named after politicians or bureaucrats. There are plenty of worthy astronomers and astrophysicists worthy of being honored with their name on a project.
Maybe we should splash it with red paint and pull it off its plinth.
Around here (Long Island), there is a thing they do where random existing highway overpasses get named for dead police officers or firefighters or maybe a military unit. A couple of signs go up, the politicians turn out for a little ceremony for the press, and it is never mentioned again. They cannot even be bothered to repaint the overpass for the ceremony.
Around here (where Webb was born and grew up), roads are named for people and groups that take responsibility for cleaning the ditches.
In Boston & environs, a sign will suddenly pop up naming a concrete island at a road crossing “Lt.Col. XYZ Square.” It’s convenient for a few votes in a city district.