James Webb Travels A Million Miles Into Deep Space, Fired Up by Jean Baptiste-Mondino for Numero

Models Lydia Kloos and Dija Kallon turned their February 2021 fashion eyes into the FUTUR, anticipating the 10-months away, Christmas Day 2021 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. Praying that she flies through the universe at epic speed as planned, Lydia and Dija were styled by Babeth Dijan in graphic, bold-colors loves from Europe’s biggest fashion houses for ‘Galactic’.

As we review our photographer archives for missing stories that AOC didn’t post in 2021 [Yes, AOC does do that], we couldn’t resist ‘Galactic’, lensed by Jean Baptiste-Mondino.

FLAWLESS PERFORMANCE REQUIRED

The fashion and beauty industries have an obsession with fixing women by making us flawless Buttons can be reattached, a broken-open seam re-stitched; a pimple zapped into inert skin rubble in an hour.

Not so for the James Webb where NOTHING — not the smallest issue that would require a human intervention like fixes on the international space station require all the time — can go wrong.

Having accidentally fallen in love with this year-old Numero editorial, we take this old-news fashion moment to share the great now news that James Webb left Earth on Christmas Day, flying atop an Ariane 5 rocket that lifted off from a spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Led by the Americans, the James Webb is an international collective effort of many nations to understand our origins. AOC is obsessed forever about the origin of our universe and the rise of humanity out of Africa and across our vast and endangered planet Earth.

NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED

NASA’s long-delayed $10 billion flying machine is now on its way, carrying the hopes and dreams of countless astronomers, astrophysicists, planetary scientists and ordinary people like Anne Enke into the final frontier.

Now we have our first fabulous good news about James Webb. On Sunday, while millions of humans were napping away Saturday’s Christmas Dinner, she successfully deployed a critical antenna in her first post-launch must-do.

The space telescope unfolded what scientists call a “gimbaled antenna assembly” that carries the high-rate data dish responsible for beaming Webb's observations of the early universe back to Earth.

"This antenna will be used to send at least 28.6 Gbytes of science data down from the observatory, twice a day," NASA officials wrote in a mission update. "The team has now released and tested the motion of the antenna assembly — the entire process took about one hour."

The James Webb is traveling back in time, set to broadcast information about “the universe's first stars and galaxies, sniff the atmospheres of nearby alien planets and perform a variety of other high-profile, high-impact work over the next five to 10 years, if all goes according to plan. “

FLAWLESS FOR REAL

Webb cannot get a pimple on her gorgeous face. Not a hair can fly out of place — or the entire mission collapses.

Unlike Kim K’s beloved SKIMS or Estee Lauder’s ‘Night Repair’, James Webb cannot be fixed with manual human intervention. She has been created by humans and a whole lot of technology — but now James Webb must fly and function flawlessly on her own, until she dies.

I beg you fashion and beauty people. Could we please stop trying to make women flawless and reserve the word ‘flawless’ for human achievements like the James Web Space Telescope? Not EVERY ultimate human achievement word needs to be on a bottle or buried in Spandex. [No offense intended, Kim. I love your SKIMS and don’t think you use that word ‘Flaws’, but I will check.]

Goddess speed, James Webb. AOC truly hopes that you succeed in telling us unimaginable scientific facts about our universe. Half the American people will say you are fake news, but we will broadcast every divine detail about your discoveries.

Sending love to an incredible flying machine carrying decades of human hopes onboard and total awe over what you might teach us about ourselves. Buckle up everyone. This could be the most amazing ride ever on planet Earth. And SHE needs a lot of help right now. ~ Anne

Related: Learn more about the James Webb Space Telescope