Victor Szebehely

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Victor G. Szebehely (1921 - September 13, 1997) was a key figure in the development and success of the Apollo program.

Szebehely was born in Budapest, Hungary. He came to the United States in 1947 and became a naturalized citizen in 1956. In 1956, a dimensionless number used in time-dependent unsteady flows was named “Szebehely’s number,” and in 1957, he was knighted by HRH Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. 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 Dutch Navy, the United States Air Force and NASA.

He was the author of several books.

His first book, The Theory of Orbits, is an important text on orbital mechanics.

He died in Austin, Texas at age 76.