3 ms·

Willy Ley was a prophet of space travel

27 points by Stratoscope 2y ago

Stratoscope 2y ago
https://archive.is/ClX2n https://archive.is/ClX2n Willy Ley was my childhood hero. His books about space travel invigorated my young mind and imagination. I even talked my parents into taking me to a space convention where he signed my copy of The Conquest of Space, with illustrations by the great Chesley Bonestell. I wish I still had that book! RIP, Willy
PaulHoule 2y ago
Loved his book "Rockets, Missiles and Men in Space" https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.161.3844.874 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.161.3844.874 which had a great description of the activities of his rocket club while the Nazis were closing in. At some point the police shut them down because "somebody might get hurt" but somebody from the rocket club convinced the authorities that this was a feature and not a bug and pretty soon they were spirited away to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usedom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usedom and the rest was history. Increasingly though my favorite prophet of the space age is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Tsiolkovsky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Tsiolkovsky because he figured out pretty much everything about space travel based on the kinetic theory of gases and the conservation of momentum and energy without building a single piece of hardware.
- southernplaces7 2y ago
  You've taken me down a bit of a rabbit hole, thanks for that. I've always been impressed by Robert Goddard and his advanced (for the time) work on rocketry, which was little appreciated by many of his contemporaries, except, it's suspected, secretly by select people from within Nazi Germany who used it to advance their V programs. However, of Tsiolkovsky, I didn't know anything at all, and what he imagined and then actually modeled with remarkable precision and accuracy is downright incredible, all the more for this being done in the 19th fucking century. If even Goddard wasn't appreciated in the 20s and 30s, it's no wonder that nobody had a clue about what to make of Tsiolkovsky's work until much later in his life and afterwards, and just ignored so much of it for so long.
js2 2y ago
Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/nyregion/willy-ley-rocket-ashes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.B08.p2Bx.c_ZkI-NaoLFv&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/nyregion/willy-ley-rocket...
- neonate 2y ago
  https://archive.ph/nxYHa https://archive.ph/nxYHa
JKCalhoun 2y ago
His "Rockets, Missiles & Men in Space" [1] is still one of the most approachable (and interesting) history of rocketry and manned space flight. [1] https://archive.org/details/rocketsmissilesm00leyw https://archive.org/details/rocketsmissilesm00leyw
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
danielschreber 2y ago
"Beyond the Solar System", about interstellar travel, came out in 1964.
8bitsrule 2y ago
As a kid, one of my 'proudest possessions' was a copy of an edition of'Conquest of Space'. And those illustrations! However he got hooked up with Bonestell, it was a match made in the heavens.
CamperBob2 2y ago
My favorite Willy Ley quote: When things get so tough that there seems to be no way out, the Russian embraces the vodka bottle, the Frenchman a woman, and the American the Bible. The German tends to resort to magic. It's not especially complimentary in context, though (page 72): https://epizodyspace.ru/bibl/inostr-yazyki/Buss_Willy_Ley_Prophet_of_the_Space_Age_2017.pdf https://epizodyspace.ru/bibl/inostr-yazyki/Buss_Willy_Ley_Pr...

27 points by Stratoscope 2y ago

https://archive.is/ClX2n https://archive.is/ClX2n Willy Ley was my childhood hero. His books about space travel invigorated my young mind and imagination. I even talked my parents into taking me to a space convention where he signed my copy of The Conquest of Space, with illustrations by the great Chesley Bonestell. I wish I still had that book! RIP, Willy

PaulHoule 2y ago

Loved his book "Rockets, Missiles and Men in Space" https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.161.3844.874 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.161.3844.874 which had a great description of the activities of his rocket club while the Nazis were closing in. At some point the police shut them down because "somebody might get hurt" but somebody from the rocket club convinced the authorities that this was a feature and not a bug and pretty soon they were spirited away to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usedom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usedom and the rest was history. Increasingly though my favorite prophet of the space age is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Tsiolkovsky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Tsiolkovsky because he figured out pretty much everything about space travel based on the kinetic theory of gases and the conservation of momentum and energy without building a single piece of hardware.

southernplaces7 2y ago
You've taken me down a bit of a rabbit hole, thanks for that. I've always been impressed by Robert Goddard and his advanced (for the time) work on rocketry, which was little appreciated by many of his contemporaries, except, it's suspected, secretly by select people from within Nazi Germany who used it to advance their V programs. However, of Tsiolkovsky, I didn't know anything at all, and what he imagined and then actually modeled with remarkable precision and accuracy is downright incredible, all the more for this being done in the 19th fucking century. If even Goddard wasn't appreciated in the 20s and 30s, it's no wonder that nobody had a clue about what to make of Tsiolkovsky's work until much later in his life and afterwards, and just ignored so much of it for so long.

js2 2y ago

Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/nyregion/willy-ley-rocket-ashes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.B08.p2Bx.c_ZkI-NaoLFv&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/nyregion/willy-ley-rocket...

neonate 2y ago
https://archive.ph/nxYHa https://archive.ph/nxYHa

JKCalhoun 2y ago

His "Rockets, Missiles & Men in Space" [1] is still one of the most approachable (and interesting) history of rocketry and manned space flight. [1] https://archive.org/details/rocketsmissilesm00leyw https://archive.org/details/rocketsmissilesm00leyw

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

danielschreber 2y ago

"Beyond the Solar System", about interstellar travel, came out in 1964.

8bitsrule 2y ago

As a kid, one of my 'proudest possessions' was a copy of an edition of'Conquest of Space'. And those illustrations! However he got hooked up with Bonestell, it was a match made in the heavens.

CamperBob2 2y ago

My favorite Willy Ley quote: When things get so tough that there seems to be no way out, the Russian embraces the vodka bottle, the Frenchman a woman, and the American the Bible. The German tends to resort to magic. It's not especially complimentary in context, though (page 72): https://epizodyspace.ru/bibl/inostr-yazyki/Buss_Willy_Ley_Prophet_of_the_Space_Age_2017.pdf https://epizodyspace.ru/bibl/inostr-yazyki/Buss_Willy_Ley_Pr...