page_title: Charles Duke
section_title: Training
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Duke / NASA / Apollo 16 / Training
caption_attribution_description: English: Astronaut Charles M. Duke Jr., Lunar Module pilot of the Apollo 16 mission, is photographed collecting lunar samples at Station no. 1 during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity at the Descartes landing site. This picture, looking eastward, was taken by Astronaut John W. Young, commander. Duke is standing at the rim of Plum crater, which is 40 meters in diameter and 10 meters deep. The parked Lunar Roving Vehicle can be seen in the left background.
context_page_description: 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. He served as CAPCOM for Apollo 11, the first crewed landing on the Moon.
context_section_description: Young, Mattingly and Duke were officially named as the crew of Apollo 16, the fifth lunar landing mission, on March 3, 1971. The Descartes Highlands were chosen as the landing site on June 3, 1971. This was the highest region on the near side of the Moon. It was believed to be volcanic in origin and mainly composed of basalt, based upon the tones of gray observed from Earth. It was hoped that rock samples retrieved by Apollo 16 would provide clues about the processes that formed the highlands, and perhaps even show that such processes were still active.
  Training was conducted in the lunar module simulator, which used a TV camera and a scale model of the landing area. Other activities included driving a training version of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV), and collecting geological samples. A final geological field trip was made to the big island of Hawaii in December 1971. On the second day of the trip, Duke caught the flu. By New Year's Day he was so ill that he was unable to get out of bed, and asked the Astronaut Office to send someone to take him to the doctor at the Kennedy Space Center. The doctor took an X-ray that revealed pneumonia in both lungs and called an ambulance to take Duke to the Patrick Air Force Base hospital.
  Duke feared that he might not recover in time for the launch, which was scheduled for March 17, 1972. The spacecraft and Saturn V launch vehicle had already been rolled out to Launch Pad 39A on December 13. Luck was with Duke: Grumman engineers wanted more time to test the increased capacity of the LM's batteries; a fault was found with the explosive cords that separate the LM from the CSM that warranted their replacement; and a failure of a clamp in Duke's spacesuit during training required the modification of all three astronauts' suits. This caused the launch date to be postponed to the next launch window, on April 16. This proved fortunate when an error by launch pad technicians caused one of the CM's Teflon fuel tank bladders to rupture, and the entire space vehicle had to be returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building. Slayton noted that "there wasn't even any discussion of replacing him; that was one of the lessons we'd learned on 13."
  The astronauts went into quarantine, and were allowed out only to fly T-38s for an hour a day. The day before liftoff, the Apollo Program director, Rocco Petrone saw someone he thought was Duke around the pool at the Holiday Inn. A furious Petrone called the crew quarters demanding to know why Duke had broken quarantine. The staff's protestations that Duke was still there and had not left did not placate Petrone, and they had to track down Duke in training, who suggested that Petrone might have seen his brother Bill. When Apollo 16 was launched at 12:54 Eastern Standard Time (17:54 UTC) on April 16, 1972, Duke became the first twin to fly in space.
caption: Duke on lunar EVA during Apollo 16, April 1972
exif: {}