Who was James Webb, the controversial man whose name adorns a telescope?

We’re burning up,” screamed the crew of Apollo 1 in a garbled transmission as fire engulfed the capsule on its launchpad. The transcript makes grim reading. It took five minutes to reach what was left of the three astronauts, who asphyxiated and then burnt in the oxygen-rich atmosphere of their spacecraft. It had only been a launch rehearsal, but it had gone disastrously wrong. That it took place on Earth, rather than in space, somehow made it more terrible.

It was 27 January 1967, and they were the first American astronauts to die in service. Roger Chaffee and Virgil “Gus” Grissom were interred at Arlington National Cemetery on 31 January, Ed White at West Point Military Academy Cemetery on the same day.

James Webb was at the funerals in Arlington. The director of the Apollo missions knew these deaths could likely spell the end of America’s mission to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade. But he was prepared to sacrifice his career to ensure that aspiration remained extant.