James E. Webb

James E. Webb
Official NASA photo, 1966
2nd Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
In office February 14, 1961 – October 7, 1968
President	John F. Kennedy Lyndon Johnson
Deputy	Hugh Dryden Robert Seamans Thomas O. Paine
Preceded by	T. Keith Glennan
Succeeded by	Thomas O. Paine
16th United States Under Secretary of State
In office January 28, 1949 – February 29, 1952
President	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Robert A. Lovett
Succeeded by	David Bruce
7th Director of the Bureau of the Budget
In office July 13, 1946 – January 27, 1949
President	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Harold D. Smith
Succeeded by	Frank Pace
Personal details
Born	James Edwin Webb (1906-10-07)October 7, 1906 Tally Ho, North Carolina, U.S. (now Stem)
Died	March 27, 1992(1992-03-27) (aged 85) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Resting place	Arlington National Cemetery
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Patsy Aiken Douglas ​ (m. 1938)​
Children	2
Education	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (BA) George Washington University (JD)
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Marine Corps
Years of service	1930–1932 1944–1945
Rank	Lieutenant colonel[1]

James Edwin Webb (October 7, 1906 – March 27, 1992) was an American government official who served as Undersecretary of State from 1949 to 1952. He was the second Administrator of NASA from February 14, 1961, to October 7, 1968. Webb led NASA from the beginning of the Kennedy administration through the end of the Johnson administration, thus overseeing each of the critical first crewed missions throughout the Mercury and Gemini programs until days before the launch of the first Apollo mission. He also dealt with the Apollo 1 fire.

In 2002, the Next Generation Space Telescope was renamed the James Webb Space Telescope as a tribute to Webb.