As humanity prepares for a new era of lunar exploration, the voices of those who first walked on the Moon remain vital. One of them is Charlie Duke, now one of just four Apollo astronauts who remain in the world. Duke and his wife Dorothy reside just outside of San Antonio, Texas. Together, they are just shy of celebrating an amazing 60 years of marriage. His experiences paint the picture of the heroic accomplishments space explorers have made. They showcase what the next generation will have to navigate in their path.
Duke was one of the twelve astronauts who walked on the lunar surface. He took the same path as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did on the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon on July 20, 1969. With that, Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the Moon. Aldrin was close behind, making history as the second. Duke’s voyage to the Moon aboard Apollo 16 in April 1972. Today, this turn of events has ensured that he is among the fewest of all men to leave footprints on the Moon.
Harrison Schmitt is perhaps the most prominent of the surviving Moonwalkers. He flew on Apollo 17, the last crewed mission to the Moon, in December 1972. Schmitt was the first scientist to set foot on the lunar surface. His pioneering observations offered precious glimpses into that mighty subduction zone. He underscored the importance of having a sustained presence on the lunar surface. He said, “I don’t want us to do the ‘go there, touchdown and come back’ – we did that with Apollo.
The legacy of lunar missions is more than exploration, it’s a base for what’s to come. Eugene Cernan passed away this week as one of the last two men to walk on the Moon. He took the weight of future missions deeply to heart. Cernan’s Apollo 17 mission ended with his famous words. He stated, “We depart as we arrived, and with the favor of Heaven, may return again.”
Fred Haise and Jim Lovell were hugely influential in NASA’s history. Lovell commanded the first lunar mission, Apollo 8. Then, in 1970, as captain of Apollo 13, he and his crew lived through an awful close call with death. Haise was part of that Apollo 13 crew, which through ingenuity and skill narrowly avoided tragedy and returned safely to Earth.
While dozens of astronauts have written pages of their experiences, no one’s story has been as moving as those of Charlie Duke. He recalls the breathtaking beauty of the Moon: “The beauty of it… the sharp contrast between the blackness of space and the horizon of the Moon… I’ll never forget it. It was so dramatic.”
Duke couldn’t be happier with NASA’s Artemis program! This program is meant to return humans to the Moon and establish a lasting human presence there. He warns it’s not going to come without its own challenges. He highlights the challenges posed by the South Pole region selected for landing: “They’ve picked near the South Pole for the landing because if there’s any ice on the Moon, it would be down in that region. So that’s going to be a challenge – it should be, because it’s really nasty down there. But we’ll pull it off.”
David Scott, who commanded Apollo 15, contributed to lunar exploration by testing out the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) alongside James Irwin. Scott later expressed a sense of longing after his mission: “I feel like maybe I missed something while I was up there.” Reflections like these highlight the emotional toll that follows these miraculous moments.
Of course, as time goes on, the few Moonwalkers left are seeing a new generation get ready to embark on similar adventures. Their individual experiences provide priceless knowledge that reverberates through 60 years of space history. In many ways, astronauts today still contend with challenges like those experienced during the country’s last Apollo-era expedition. New technology and greater cooperation internationally hold great hope for doing better next time.