The Story of Liza and James

James Webb died on the 27th of March 1992 at the ripe old age of 85. He was an American marine and a lawyer in his time, but most famously he was the 2nd Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Liza Dmytrieva died last Thursday when Russian missiles struck the city of Vinnytsia in Ukraine, she was four.

The paths of James and Liza’s lives never crossed of course in space, but they did cross in time this week providing a powerful reminder of what humanity is capable of at its best and at its worst. The James Webb Space Telescope is a large infrared telescope with a 6.5-meter primary mirror named after NASA’s former Administrator. The telescope was launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana in 2021 and this week published photos of the galaxy taken from a million miles away from the Earth.

The Webb telescope didn’t come cheap at an estimated cost of some eight billion dollars, but its images of far-flung galaxies as they were 13bn years ago, are mind boggling. They are the first glimpse from the most powerful telescope ever launched into space, which promises to reshape our understanding of the dawn of the universe.

However, whilst a manmade invention of incredible ingenuity and design was taking these images some million miles away from Earth, back on the planet a little girl pushing her own pram, was happily walking through her home city, wearing a denim jacket and white trousers. This scene of absolute normality was shattered, as shown in CCTV footage and images that have since gone viral, when a series of cruise missiles launched from a submarine hit the town.

Liza will never have the same illustrious Wikipedia page that James Webb has, she was never given the chance. Her mother lost a leg in the strike and remains in a coma in hospital, unaware that she has lost the daughter whose name she has tattooed on her arm. The horror of Liza’s death has brought with it attention denied many of the hundreds of children that have already died or the thousands that have been injured since the Russian invasion began in February. We know that Liza was no stranger to adversity, she was born with Down Syndrome and had to have a heart operation when she was only seven months old.

Humanity is able to direct targeted missiles onto the heads of toddlers whilst sending giant telescopes into deep space to take pictures of historic galaxies of the past. That is the dilemma of our species, to possess both incredible creativity and knowledge applied with focus and determination to push the frontier of science and human understanding, or to destroy the lives of those most vulnerable with our weapons of war.

With no military targets in the vicinity questions have immediately been asked as to the purpose of this Russian attack. Russian President Putin warned last week that his country’s operations in Ukraine had not “"started in earnest" in a speech that seemed to promise an expansion of attacks in and on the country. With the main operation slowly taking territory in the east, these seemingly random sporadic attacks are a reminder to Ukrainians that the war could be everywhere and that nobody is truly safe.

In recent months residents in western cities, including Kiev and Lviv, have become increasingly relaxed to the constant air raid sirens warning of imminent attacks. Unlike at the start of the war where people would rush to basements or shelters, people have adjusted, and the noise has almost become a constant background noise rather than a harbinger of death. This may have to change if the Vinnytsia attack becomes the new normal.

Already Ukrainian schools preparing for the September term are being told that they must have air raid shelters in place to be able to open. Practically speaking having millions of civilians constantly moving in and out of shelters and unable to work will mean more pain for the Ukrainian economy, let alone the impacts it will have on society if the months of war extend into years.

What a week in which Liza Dmytrieva died and the James Webb telescope captured the images it did reminds us, is that there is another way, another choice to focus a country’s energy and ambitions. Whether President Putin saw both of theses images is unknown, but for humanities sake we can only hope he did.