A high-flying guest is in town this
weekend and will be chatting with visitors at a cocktail hour on Sunday
evening.
US astronaut Charles M. Duke Jr,
one of only 12 men (and the youngest) to walk on the moon, is in Cayman this
weekend as a part of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation’s special events.
Along with other meetings and
engagements, Duke and his wife Dottie will be at a cocktail hour from 6.30pm to
7.30pm Sunday, 14 November, at Mezza restaurant in Seven Mile Beach.
The public is welcome to the
meet-and-greet with the youngest astronaut to ever land on the moon. No
autographs, but plenty of time for finding out what the moon is really like.
Duke, now 75, and a retired US Air
Force brigadier general, was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. After graduating from the US Naval Academy in
1957, he earned a master’s in aeronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and then began his Air Force career.
He served three years with the 526th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at
Ramstein Air Base in Germany before being transferred to the Aerospace Research
Pilot School.
In 1966 Duke was among 19 new
astronauts selected by NASA to be among its fifth group of astronauts. After
serving as a member of the astronaut support crew for Apollo 10, he became the
voice of Mission Control for Apollo 11, the first landing on the moon — his
southern drawl becoming a signature voice to viewers around the world.
He was named lunar module pilot for
Apollo 16, along with John Young and TK Mattingly in 1972, working on a mission
that explored the rugged highlands of the moon’s Descartes region. He drove a
lunar rover 16 miles and collected 213 pounds of lunar rock and soil.
Duke retired from NASA in 1975, and
now serves on the board of directors of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, a
non-profit organisation that is aimed at helping the United States retain its
world leadership in science and technology by providing scholarships for
college students.
Duke, who lives in Texas, is one of
the astronauts featured in the book and documentary, In the Shadow of the Moon.
Related Videos
