The most favorable and fuel efficient track for the space flight from the Earth to the Moon for the first time was calculated and published in the book, The Conquest of Interplanetary Space, by Yuri Kondratyuk. Yuri Kondratyuk (the real name is Oleksandr Sharhey) was born in Poltava, Ukraine in 1897, and he lived in the town of Smila, Ukraine. The head of the US Space Apollo Program John Hubolt and Neil Armstrong repeatedly publicly stated the crucial role of Kondratyuk in both the success of the Apollo program and the successful landing of man onto the moon.

Max Demchenko