In 2002, then NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe announced that the upcoming Next Generation Space Telescope would be renamed to the James Webb Space Telescope. James E. Webb was NASA's second administrator and an advocate for injecting more science into the Apollo missions.
In 2015, journalist Dan Savage highlighted Webb's involvement in the lavender scare of the 1950s and 1960s, where 91 gay people were purged from the Department of State staff. This stirred controversy among astronomers over the observatory's name.
Despite calls for a name change due to Webb's association with the lavender scare, NASA conducted an internal investigation and decided to retain the name. Some argue that Webb's history warrants reconsideration.
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