Charles Duke, Date of Birth, Place of Birth

    

Charles Duke

American engineer, retired U.S. Air Force officer, test pilot, and a former astronaut for NASA

Date of Birth: 03-Oct-1935

Place of Birth: Charlotte, North Carolina, United States

Profession: astronaut, businessperson, flight instructor, fighter pilot, test pilot, aircraft pilot, air force officer

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Libra


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About Charles Duke

  • Charles Moss Duke Jr.
  • (born October 3, 1935) is an American former astronaut, U.S.
  • Air Force (USAF) 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. 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.
  • He served as CAPCOM for Apollo 11, the first crewed landing on the Moon.
  • His distinctive Southern drawl became familiar to audiences around the world as the voice of a Mission Control made nervous by a long landing that almost expended all of the lunar module Eagle's fuel.
  • Duke's first words to the Apollo 11 crew on the surface of the Moon were flustered, "Roger, Twank...Tranquility, we copy you on the ground.
  • You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue.
  • We're breathing again.
  • Thanks a lot!" Duke was backup lunar module pilot on Apollo 13.
  • Shortly before the mission, he caught German measles (rubella) from a friend's child and inadvertently exposed the prime crew to the disease.
  • As Ken Mattingly had no natural immunity to the disease, Mattingly was replaced as command module pilot by Jack Swigert.
  • Mattingly was reassigned as command module pilot of Duke's flight, Apollo 16.
  • On this mission, Duke and John Young landed at the Descartes Highlands and conducted three extravehicular activities (EVAs).
  • He also served as backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 17.
  • Duke retired from NASA in December 1975. Following his retirement from NASA, Duke entered the Air Force Reserve and served as a mobilization augmentee to the Commander, USAF Basic Military Training Center and to the Commander, USAF Recruiting Service.
  • He graduated from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in 1978.
  • He was promoted to Brigadier General in 1979, and retired in June 1986.
  • He has logged 4,147 hours flying time, which includes 3,632 hours in jet aircraft; and 265 hours in space, including 20 hours and 15 minutes of EVA.
  • A resident of New Braunfels, Texas, he is currently chairman of the board of directors of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.
  • He was named the Texan of the Year for 2020.

Read more at Wikipedia

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