2 Hryvni Yuri Kondratyuk

Yuri Kondratyuk never lived to see the Space Age he helped theorize. Born Oleksandr Shargei in 1897, he adopted a false identity to evade Soviet persecution — and it was under that assumed name that he wrote the orbital mechanics calculations NASA engineers later credited as foundational to the Apollo lunar orbit rendezvous approach. John Houbolt, the NASA engineer who championed that mission profile, made a point of visiting Kondratyuk's grave in Poltava.

This commemorative was issued the same year Ukraine marked the centenary of his birth.