The James Webb Space Telescope is named after NASA’s second administrator.

 

The James Webb Space Telescope is named after NASA’s second administrator.

Originally called the Next Generation Space Telescope, the JWST was renamed in 2002 in honor of James E. Webb.

As the highest ranking official for NASA from 1961 to 1968, Webb developed NASA from a disconnected organization into the highly coordinated machine, it’s now known to be.

Webb also oversaw the Mercury and Gemini programs and most Apollo programs.

Naming the JWST after Webb was controversial, as he had been accused of being complicit in systematically firing any employees suspected of homosexuality.

Webb became the administrator of NASA in 1961, just months before Pres. John F. Kennedy announced the U.S. commitment to sending a man to the Moon by 1970. Webb gave overriding priority to the success of Apollo and used his considerable political skills to rally and maintain support for the program, even after three astronauts died in an accident in 1967. Webb was also a keen student of public administration and used NASA as a laboratory for his ideas about how to organize large-scale public undertakings in ways that both increased the chances of a program’s success and provided maximum benefits to the country.