Willy Ley was a prophet of space travel

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<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.is&#x2F;ClX2n" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.is&#x2F;ClX2n</a><p>Willy Ley was my childhood hero. His books about space travel invigorated my young mind and imagination.<p>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!<p>RIP, Willy

His &quot;Rockets, Missiles &amp; Men in Space&quot; [1] is still one of the most approachable (and interesting) history of rocketry and manned space flight.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.org&#x2F;details&#x2F;rocketsmissilesm00leyw" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.org&#x2F;details&#x2F;rocketsmissilesm00leyw</a>

My favorite Willy Ley quote:<p><i>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.</i><p>It&#x27;s not especially complimentary in context, though (page 72): <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;epizodyspace.ru&#x2F;bibl&#x2F;inostr-yazyki&#x2F;Buss_Willy_Ley_Prophet_of_the_Space_Age_2017.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;epizodyspace.ru&#x2F;bibl&#x2F;inostr-yazyki&#x2F;Buss_Willy_Ley_Pr...</a>

Loved his book &quot;Rockets, Missiles and Men in Space&quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.science.org&#x2F;doi&#x2F;10.1126&#x2F;science.161.3844.874" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.science.org&#x2F;doi&#x2F;10.1126&#x2F;science.161.3844.874</a><p>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 &quot;somebody might get hurt&quot; 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<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Usedom" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Usedom</a><p>and the rest was history. Increasingly though my favorite prophet of the space age is<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Konstantin_Tsiolkovsky" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Konstantin_Tsiolkovsky</a><p>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.

&quot;Beyond the Solar System&quot;, about interstellar travel, came out in 1964.

As a kid, one of my &#x27;proudest possessions&#x27; was a copy of an edition of&#x27;Conquest of Space&#x27;. And those illustrations! However he got hooked up with Bonestell, it was a match made in the heavens.