After which NASA administrator was JWST named?

After which NASA administrator was JWST named? It was named after James E. Webb. Webb served as NASA’s second administrator from 1961 to 1968, during the Mercury, Gemini, and early Apollo programs.

The telescope was originally called the Next Generation Space Telescope. NASA renamed it the James Webb Space Telescope in 2002, honoring Webb’s leadership during the period when the agency developed its human-spaceflight program and expanded its scientific research.

Webb was an administrator rather than an astronaut or engineer. He helped secure political and financial support for Apollo, oversaw NASA after President John F. Kennedy set the lunar-landing goal, and encouraged robotic planetary missions and space-telescope research.

A common mix-up is confusing James E. Webb with Robert Goddard, an early rocket pioneer, or Edwin Hubble, the astronomer whose name was given to NASA’s earlier space telescope. The JWST launched on December 25, 2021, and studies the universe primarily in infrared light.