Astronaut Charlie Duke

[Morgul]

I would just like to mention that Charlie Duke was one of my childhood idols.  He was an inspiration to me growing up, because he was from my home state of South Carolina, and he showed me that someone from South Carolina can truly go far in life.  I have always been a fan of his.

Last night ( May 8 ), I got to meet him in person, fulfilling a lifelong dream.  He was going to be a guest speaker at a Boy Scout fundraiser in my council, so I made plans to attend, and had the honor of speaking with him for a brief while.  He is a very honest, down-to-earth kind of person, and I really enjoyed our conversation.

He was also kind enough to autograph his official NASA photograph for me.

It's not often we get to meet our personal heroes.  Last night was an awesome night for me!

[Andromeda]

Wow!

I'm really jealous!

It's not only great to meet these guys, but when they are really nice as well it's amazing.

[Kiwi]

He is a very honest, down-to-earth kind of person, and I really enjoyed our conversation.

Then there's his incredible sense of humour!  That's one of the things I really liked about him.  I also read somewhere that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin deliberately picked Charlie to be their Capcom during the lunar landing because of his abilities, and it's pretty obvious from the transcripts that he did an excellent job.

I love his brief exchange with Mike Collins before the landing:

Seventeen minutes before the lunar module Eagle commences powered descent to the first manned lunar landing, Capcom Charlie Duke advises Mike Collins in the command module Columbia that Houston expects to temporarily lose communications with him via the high gain antenna.
102:16:00 Duke: Columbia, Houston. We expect to lose your high gain during the powered descent. Over.
102:16:19 Collins: Columbia. Roger. You don't much care do you?
102:16:22 Duke: No, sir.

I probably heard that on the radio here in New Zealand as it happened, but wouldn't have "got it"' way back then. Have also been saving the Spacecraft Films' Apollo 16 DVD set for the duller days this winter, so I can enjoy more of the humour of Charlie and another madcap on the moon.  Not long to go now!

[Noldi400]

Charlie was always one of the most down-home of the astronauts in his radio transmissions.  I'll never forget his comment when, according to him, they free-fell the last foot or so to the surface:

"Contact.... [engine] stop..... Boom!"

[ka9q]

I briefly met Charlie Duke at the Apollo 17 40th anniversary thing in San Diego a few years ago. I also chatted with his wife, telling her only half-jokingly that being Capcom on the Apollo 11 landing was probably a harder job than being LMP on Apollo 16. I don't think she agreed...

[Kiwi]

...I also read somewhere that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin deliberately picked Charlie to be their Capcom during the lunar landing because of his abilities, and it's pretty obvious from the transcripts that he did an excellent job.

Found that part a few hours ago. It shows how capable Charlie was, having only been an astronaut for three years and not yet assigned to any crew, but picked as Capcom for crucial stages by two of the first three commanders to go to the moon.

First on the Moon -- A Voyage With Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. Written with Gene Farmer and Dora Jane Hamblin. Epilogue by Arthur C. Clarke. Michael Joseph, London, 1970. Pages 234-235:

    Charlie Duke was the Houston CAPCOM waiting for reacquisition of signal at 102 hours GET; it was a little more than half an hour to lunar touchdown. The CAPCOM was really the crew's representative in Mission Control; as Duke said: "We're supposed to know how the crew responds, and whether this is good from an operational standpoint or not. So our inputs into the total decision-making process are of an operational nature. To be a good CAPCOM, you've got to know the procedures used by the crew and also the software — in other words, the operational details of how they're flying the spacecraft and also the flow of information to the crew. That's the software, the program in the computer. Or the programs — plural." Duke had known since the flight of Apollo 10 that he would have this shift as CAPCOM on Apollo 11. Tom Stafford had asked him to be the prime CAPCOM of Apollo 10, and had got him; therefore, on that flight, he had helped put together the "timeline" for the checkout of the lunar module in lunar orbit. Because of that experience, and because of the knowledge of lunar rendezvous he had acquired during the Apollo 10 mission, Neil Armstrong asked Duke to be the CAPCOM for the lunar orbit phase in which the Apollo 11 lunar module would be checked out; and the normal cycling of Mission Control crews would then make Duke the CAPCOM at lunar landing time. Neil Armstrong recalled having said, "I want you to do it for me, because you probably have a better knowledge of this than anybody that's not flying." Duke himself recalled ruefully that "I would have liked to say that I was on a crew and wouldn't have time to do it. But I wasn't on a crew." Duke was one of those Annapolis graduated astronauts (like Bill Anders, Tom Stafford, Donn Eisele and Jim Irwin) who had gone into the Air Force and then decided to try for the space program. Duke decided to opt for the Air Force after his second Navy cruise ("I got seasick"). He applied to become an astronaut rather late — in 1965, when it became apparent to him at Edwards Air Force Base that there would be no place for him very soon in the program which was flying the rocket-powered X-15. Somewhat to his surprise, getting into the space program turned out to be easier than getting an assignment to fly the X-15, and he was accepted in the spring of 1966. At the time of Apollo 11 Duke was thirty-three years old and had been an astronaut for three years. He was still waiting for a crew assignment, and he sometimes wondered if he would be the first rookie astronaut to fly at the age of fifty. But on the afternoon of Sunday, July 20, he was — from the standpoint of the Apollo 11 astronauts — just about the most important man on the ground at Mission Control. Acquisition of signal... There they were, dead on time...