Victor Szebehely

Victor G. Szebehely (August 21, 1921 – September 13, 1997) was a Hungarian-American astrophysicist, aerospace engineer, and mathematician whose research focused on celestial mechanics, orbital mechanics, and astrodynamics. He was a key figure in the development and success of the Apollo program.

In 1956, a dimensionless number used in time-dependent unsteady flows was named "Szebehely's number," (In the September and October 1977 issues of the journal Celestial Mechanics, volume 16, an equation used to determine the gravitational potential of the Earth, planets, satellites, and galaxies was named "Szebehely's equation").

He worked with General Electric, Yale University, the Royal Netherlands Navy, the United States Air Force, NASA, and the University of Texas at Austin. One of his areas of research was orbital debris and planetary defense against meteor impacts

His first book, The Theory of Orbits, is an important work in orbital mechanics, being the definitive text on the restricted three-body problem as applicable to an Earth-Moon spacecraft system such as Apollo.

He was knighted by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands in 1957.