88-year-old Apollo 16 astronaut touts the privatization of space
SAN FRANCISCO - A true space hero was in San Francisco last week for a NASA conference about the future of space and technology.
Now 88 years old, Charles Duke is a retired general fighter pilot, test pilot and astronaut, was the lunar module pilot on Apollo 16, and the youngest human at age 36 to ever walk on the moon and one of just four living moon walkers out of the 12 who did it.
At first, Duke was not sure of the privatization of space.
"When they first announced it, I said 'Why are we doing this?' But, it didn't take me long to change my mind," Duke said in a recent interview.
Duke believes private enterprise will take over and grow the burgeoning low-earth-orbit economy.
"All excellent companies and they're doing a great job and I think helping revolutionize near earth space, earth orbit. NASA will concentrate on deep space like Artemis back to the moon, building a moon base and stuff like that," he said.
Though test pilots often vied to be the fastest man alive, Duke is one of them.
Along with other Apollo crew members re-entering Earth's atmosphere, no one has ever gone faster.
"You're really smoking in over 25,000 miles an hour. You don't feel like you're going fast until you this this fireball forming around the spacecraft," Duke said.
Duke credits the U.S. and Russia for internationalizing space so that other nations could participate in exploration and science on orbit.
Though the Chinese will land a lunar probe on the dark side of the moon, to retrieve rocks and soil, Duke says it's advancing science and human knowledge with only one regret.
"I don't really see us in a competition with the Chinese. Fifty years ago, John Young and I wanted to land on the back side of the moon. But they wouldn't let us," said Duke.
Duke said he couldn't do it without Dorothy, his wife of 61 years.
"No , I could not have done it without her. She supported our family, the kids and kept the home fires burning when we were training," he said.
