As the space race mounted, Mr. Ley continued to publish books and articles that translated complex astrophysics and rocketry concepts
for a broader audience. His work was cited by Congress, and many of his then-outlandish predictions — an undersea tunnel between
Britain and France, the rise of commercial solar and wind power — have since been realized. Walt Disney hired him as a consultant any
time a rocket ship or space ride was being built at Disneyland.
He spent the rest of his life living in Jackson Heights, Queens, with his wife, Olga, and two daughters. He wrote hundreds of articles and
dozens of books, inspiring countless future scientists and even astronauts.
“I think all of the Apollo astronauts felt that they owed a debt of gratitude to Willy Ley and the teams that laid this out, that they were
going as representatives of humanity,” said Carter Emmart, the director of astrovisualization at the American Museum of Natural History.
On June 24, 1969, as he was preparing to travel to Houston to be NASA’s guest during the launch of Apollo 11, Mr. Ley died of a heart
attack in Queens. On July 16, the historic spaceflight blasted off from Cape Canaveral with three astronauts: Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong
and Michael Collins. By the time Mr. Armstrong took his giant leap, all that was left of the man who had foreseen it was ashes.
A few months later, an editorial in the magazine Popular Mechanics mourned Mr. Ley’s loss: “The man who persuaded the world,
Americans in particular, that man could go to the moon missed seeing his prophecy come true by three and one-half weeks.”
On the far side of the moon, a crater was named in his honor. On earth, he would be consigned to a basement, forgotten in a can.
