Hello, JustSpace friends! We’ve had a busy few months, especially with the release of our new documentary on the history behind the name of JWST. Read on to learn more about the documentary, plus a sampling of the latest news and events in space and social justice!

Behind the Name Documentary

NASA released the first science images from the James Webb Space Telescope on July 12, and astronomers have been abuzz with excitement over these beautiful and richly detailed images— and all the new science yet to come! But the excitement has been tempered by the controversy surrounding the name of NASA’s newest flagship space observatory.

As we’ve written about in this newsletter previously, the namesake of JWST, former NASA Administrator James E. Webb, worked in leadership positions for both NASA and the U.S. State Department during the notorious Lavender Scare, when thousands of federal employees were fired for being gay. Astrophysicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein and science journalists (starting with Matthew Francis) began speaking out against naming the telescope after such a legacy in 2015, and a petition calling for NASA to rename the telescope was started last year by Prescod-Weinstein, Brian Nord, Sarah Tuttle, and JustSpace co-founder Lucianne Walkowicz.

NASA’s response to the concerns of LGBTQIA+ astronomers about this issue have been disappointingly lackluster to date. So one week before the science images were released, the JustSpace Alliance premiered a new 40-minute documentary on YouTube titled Behind the Name: James Webb Space Telescope. The documentary includes historical records and footage to provide context for the Lavender Scare, James E. Webb’s work at NASA and the State Department, and the typical process for naming telescopes. It also features interviews with LGBTQIA+ astronomers to explore their perspective on JWST’s name, and their experiences with the prejudices still lingering in the field today.

You can watch Behind the Name on YouTube. For more perspectives on the JWST name controversy: 

• We recommend Matthew Francis’ recent blog post, “Why I will not write about JWST”, which includes his personal experiences of being accused of professional misconduct for writing about the problems with the name.

• Astronomer and science communicator Phil Plait  discussed the issue in his newsletter, arguing in particular that NASA “has ​​mishandled the situation enough that that they need to stop and reassess their entire effort here”. 

• JustSpace Board member Alice Gorman summarized the controversy for The Conversation, noting parallels with discussions surrounding rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, who was welcomed into the U.S. rocket program after World War II despite his former membership in the Nazi party.

Lucianne Walkowicz was interviewed about James Webb by Democracy Now!, who also replayed a portion of the Behind the Name documentary. You can watch or read the transcript on the Democracy Now! website.

News

Maunakea and the Thirty Meter Telescope

In July, Hawaii’s state government passed a law that will transition control of the summit of Maunakea from the University of Hawaii to a new “stewardship and oversight authority”. This committee will include local government and university representatives, but must also include a recognized practitioner of Native Hawaiian traditional practices as well as a descendent of such a practitioner who was specifically associated with Maunakea. 

That same month, the National Science Foundation announced that it would be preparing an environmental impact statement for the planned Thirty Meter Telescope. The NSF stated that it would consider the environmental impact and technical readiness, as well as public input, before deciding whether to fund TMT. You can watch some of the commentary at a recent meeting from Native Hawaiian leaders online– we recommend this video of Mililani Trask, who is Hawai’i Island Trustee for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs– and submit your comments on the NSF website.

Falling rocket debris

In early August, debris from a Chinese Long March 5B booster rocket fell to the surface of the Earth over Malaysia and Indonesia. The rocket itself was carrying a module to the Tiangong space station, and China had announced that it was tracking the debris several days earlier. Many have accused China of being “reckless” and “irresponsible” to continue to launch rockets that produce uncontrolled debris re-entry.

In fact, a recent study in Nature Astronomy predicts that the growing rate of rocket launches around the world means that “there’s about a 10 percent chance of one or more casualties in the next decade from a falling rocket body”. And residents of the Global South face an increased risk. The authors note that we have the technology to de-orbit rocket technology safely; we just need to be willing to pay the increased cost. As if on cue, the study was published within days of when a large piece of space junk, believed to be part of a SpaceX Crew-1 Dragon spacecraft, fell in Australia.

To Listen

• Lucianne Walkowicz was recently interviewed about The Ethics of Space Exploration on the Celestial Citizen podcast. 

To Read

• JustSpace co-founders Erika Nesvold and Lucianne Walkowicz, along with our Board member Monica Vidaurri, presented talks at the Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium last April on Ethics in Solar System Exploration. Along with moderator Emily Martin, we’ve recently published a summary of the session in Nature Astronomy. 

• Trucha recently published a two-part deep dive into the impact of SpaceX’s Starbase launch center on the local Brownsville community. Part 1 explores how Musk’s wealth “has blurred lines between corporate interests and the role of government” in the area, while Part 2 reveals the lack of transparency regarding “important public information” about Starbase’s impacts and risks.

• In June, Financial Times released a beautiful piece of visual journalism illustrating “How space debris threatens modern life”.

• Astrobiologists David Grinspoon and Caleb Sharf have both been thinking about trash on Mars lately. Grinspoon noted in Sky & Telescope that recent pictures of the debris on the surface of Mars from the Perseverance rover’s entry craft made him “wonder when we will start picking up after ourselves”. And as Sharf wrote for Slate’s Future Tense, looking at those same images reminded him that he was “looking at the scattered, cracked, and carelessly tossed trash from another planet. It is, to be blunt, a pile of crap, and that’s something that seems to follow humans wherever we go.” 

Coming Soon

The second Space Science in Context conference, which we advertised in our previous regular newsletter, has been rescheduled for January 26, 2023. Created by Ellie Armstrong and JustSpace Board member Divya Persaud, Space Science in Context is a free virtual conference bringing together people interested in and who study outer space and/or its social contexts for an interactive event. Full registration will begin soon, but in the meantime, you can follow the link to learn more, register your interest, and request accessibility support!

The Policy Studies Organization is hosting an upcoming virtual conference on Space Education & Strategic Applications, with the theme of “Fifty Years from the Moon: The Future of Commercial, Government, and Military Space Exploration”. This free two-day conference will be held on September 22-23, 2022, and will include a panel on Disability in Space moderated by JustSpace co-founder Erika Nesvold, featuring panelists AJ Link, Lauryn Lee Hallet, and JustSpace Board members Jarah Moesch and Damien Williams.

Take Action

If you’d like to add your voice to the call to rename JWST, you can find the petition at https://bit.ly/SignToRenameJWST, and use the hashtag #RenameJWST to spread the word.

You can also use your voice by submitting a public comment on the Thirty Meter Telescope and Maunakea on the NSF website.

And finally, we also invite you to apply to join the JustSpace Alliance at bit.ly/JustSpaceApply! Members have access to our virtual community spaces, and in the future, we’ll be able to offer in-person gatherings, more podcast and video content, writing, and more. Supporting JustSpace will help us reach our mission goals by allowing us to compensate people for their time and labor for our future projects, as well as help us cover basic costs like maintaining our website, etc. You can find more information at bit.ly/JustSpaceMemberFAQ.