Apollo 16 Moonwalker Charlie Duke

Discover engineering feats and human grit behind the Apollo program's final lunar rover mission, where precise maneuvers and manual piloting turned impossible odds into reality.

Key Takeaways:

• Saturn V launch vibrations mimicked a limber fishing pole, with five engines gimbaling atop a 361-foot stack for trajectory control.

• Manual landing at 500 feet involved redesignating spots amid unseen craters smaller than 45 feet in pre-mission photos.

• Lunar rover enabled 17 miles of traversal, collecting highland rocks distinct from mare basalts, revolutionizing surface ops.

• Post-landing quarantine dropped after no moon microbes found; pre-flight isolation stemmed from a measles exposure incident.

• Return maneuvers included a spacewalk retrieving film canisters, with a serendipitous wedding ring recovery in zero-g.

The episode traces the path from a South Carolina textile town to Naval Academy prep, Air Force fighter intercepts over Germany, MIT navigation studies, and Edwards test pilot school under legends like Chuck Yeager. Selection for NASA's fifth astronaut group in 1966 led to support roles on Apollo 10-13, culminating in Apollo 16's 1972 highlands landing at 8,000 feet elevation. Training spanned global geology field trips, jungle/desert survival, and simulator hours for rendezvous docking. Mission highlights include powering down four hours post-landing for rest despite excitement, three EVAs with the rover's bouncy 80-pound frame on regolith, and jettisoning life support packs to lighten ascent. Back on Earth, a director role at NASA transitioned to energy sector leadership, followed by worldwide ministry sharing transformative faith experiences since 1979.

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