Charlie Duke

Charles Moss Duke Jr. is an American former astronaut, U.S. Air Force officer and test pilot. As lunar module pilot of Apollo 16 in 1972, he became the tenth and youngest person to walk on the Moon, at age 36 years and 201 days. A 1957 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he joined the USAF. He completed advanced flight training on the F-86 Sabre at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, where he was a distinguished graduate. After completion of this training, Duke served three years as a fighter pilot with the 526th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at Ramstein Air Base in West Germany. After graduating from the Aerospace Research Pilot School in September 1965, he stayed on as an instructor teaching control systems and flying in the F-101 Voodoo, F-104 Starfighter, and T-33 Shooting Star. In April 1966, Duke was one of nineteen men selected for NASA's fifth group of astronauts. In 1969, he was a member of the astronaut support crew for Apollo 10.

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50 years after the last Apollo mission in 1972, only 4 of the 12 moonwalkers are still alive: Charlie Duke, Buzz Aldrin, Dave Scott and Harrison Schmitt. After leaving NASA, Duke chose the creationist belief that everything in the universe was created by a God

The surprising voyage of Charlie Duke: An astronaut reaches for heaven

50 years ago, Apollo 16 astronauts Charlie Duke and John Young roved across the lunar highlands to study the Moon's geology. Here are the highlights of the mission in the astronauts' own words.

50 years after moonwalk, SC and Lancaster to honor astronaut Charlie Duke

Because the Apollo 16 launch coincided with the 1972 Munich Olympics, Charlie Duke and John Young decided to hold their own Olympics on the moon. During high jump, Duke's 150-lb. backpack threw him off balance and he went over backwards. Duke still holds the high jump record on the moon