82 March 2014 sky & telescopeAt the Northeast Astronomy Forum
in 2011, I listened to astronomer Heidi
Hammel enthusiastically describe the
wonders of the James Webb Space Tele-
scope. Toward the end of her talk, she put
out a plea for the audience to write to their
Congressional representatives because
there was a very real possibility that tele-
scope funding could be cut. The political
forces in Congress, even before the current
sequestration, had found the JWST pro-
gram’s budget overruns and mismanage-
ment a little too much to swallow. In July
2011, with budget cuts looming at NASA,
a House committee recommended culling
the so-called “successor to Hubble.”
The James Webb Space Telescope —
named after NASA’s second administrator,
a seminal leader who was not averse to
fi ghting for ambitious endeavors in sci-
ence and technology — was already $3.5
billion into development. Moreover, this is
an international project, and a European
instrument was at the testing stage.Comparisons of JWST’s plight to that
of the fi ght to save Hubble rippled across
the internet. Everyone from science buff s
to the engineers building JWST were
reminding people that Hubble had been
the most successful science instrument
in history, and that it was unthinkable to
scrap NASA’s next great space observatory.
It was time to act.
The campaign kicked off with Twitter.
Hashtags relating to the scope permeated
the social network, encouraging others to
read the news that Congress might scrap
NASA’s ultimate eye on the universe.
Raphael Perrino, who had previous experi-
ence with saving science projects, picked
up the tweets, and after a brief e-mail
exchange, he and a small team of enthu-
siasts set up a “Save the Webb” Facebook
page, which went viral, rapidly attracting
thousands of passionate followers.
Concurrently, Kyle Sullivan and Blair
Schumacher launched an online petition,
and within days, joined eff orts with meand Raphael. Over the next few weeks,
a group of 10 science advocates, web and
graphic designers, bloggers, and outreach
specialists did everything from lobbying
Congress to designing bumper stickers.
We all played a major role in getting the
message out: this telescope had to be
saved. U.S. team members encouraged
everyone to sign petitions, write their
Congressmen, and spread the word. Video
competitions saw some epic fi lm entries,
indicative of the level of passion people felt
to save the scope.
After four months of rallying support
for JWST, supporters breathed a collec-
tive sigh of relief when news came that
Congress had agreed to fund the scope for
launch later this decade. But had the team
really made a diff erence? The small core
group of people, spread over two conti-
nents and multiple states, had never even
met in person. All had regular day jobs,
but we all put our heart and soul into the
campaign.
Then the letters arrived, from Con-
gressmen, lobbyists, policy analysts, scien-
tists, and Capitol Hill staff ers, expressing
their sincere gratitude for our eff orts and
saying how our team’s passion had made a
diff erence. So when people voice skepti-
cism about “social not-working” websites,
think of what they can do, when, toward
the end of this decade, if everything goes
well, the most astonishing images and sci-
entifi c discoveries of our age are beamed
back to us from a tennis-court-sized
infrared telescope, which a small group of
social media space activists helped rescue
from the brink. ✦Nick Howes is a freelance science writer and
Pro-Am Program Manager for the Faulkes
Tel escope P roje c t.Focal Point Nick Howes
How the Web Saved the Webb
A group of enthusiasts helped rescue an $8 billion national treasure.
NASA / MSFC / DAVID HIGGINBOTHAM / EMMETT GIVENFP layout.indd 82 12/17/13 2:52 PM