[HN Gopher] Willy Ley was a prophet of space travel
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       Willy Ley was a prophet of space travel
        
       Author : Stratoscope
       Score  : 18 points
       Date   : 2025-04-22 19:14 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
        
       | Stratoscope wrote:
       | 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 wrote:
       | Loved his book "Rockets, Missiles and Men in Space"
       | 
       | 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
       | 
       | and the rest was history. Increasingly though my favorite prophet
       | of the space age is
       | 
       | 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.
        
       | js2 wrote:
       | Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/nyregion/willy-ley-
       | rocket...
        
         | neonate wrote:
         | https://archive.ph/nxYHa
        
       | JKCalhoun wrote:
       | 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
        
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       (page generated 2025-04-23 23:01 UTC)