Charles M. Duke Jr. is a NASA astronaut who explored the moon during Apollo 16, but he is also known for his crucial role as Capcom the spacecraft communicator during the hair-raising landing of Apollo 11. Duke and his Apollo 16 commander, John Young, spent more than 20 hours on the moon in the Descartes region. According to Duke, he took the only videos of the lunar rover "in action" as it skidded across the surface. Duke retired from NASA in 1975 to enter private business. Today, he is the chair of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation that is based in Titusville, Fla., not far from where his spacecraft journeyed to the moon. Duke entered the Air Force in 1957 after completing his training at the Naval Academy. His first assignment after advanced training was three years as a fighter interceptor pilot with a squadron in Ramstein Air Base, Germany. When he was selected as an astronaut in 1966, Duke was an instructor at the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School a place he had graduated from just the year before. At NASA, he was a member of the astronaut support crew for the Apollo 10 flight, and then was assigned as Capcom for Apollo 11, the first landing on the moon. According to Duke, it was Neil Armstrong himself the first man on the moon who requested Duke's presence on the radio.
