50 years on, Apollo 16 moonwalker still 'excited' by space

Fifty years after his Apollo 16 mission to the moon, Charlie Duke is ready for the U.S. to get back to lunar exploration.

Duke said Friday that part of that effort will be the Artemis program, which will include NASA's upcoming flight to the moon using its new Space Launch System rocket. The first of the huge rockets is supposed to blast off without a crew later this year.

NASA is going to be focused on deep space, to the moon and beyond with Artemis, and I am excited about that, Duke told The Associated Press.

Duke is one of the four surviving moonwalkers from the Apollo program. He traveled to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Alabama to visit his spaceship, which made the next-to-the-last U.S. mission to land.

John Young and Duke walked on the moon. The command module was used by Ken Mattingly to go around the moon.

Duke doesn't mind that NASA focuses on space shuttles, the international space station and other missions in more remote parts of space. He looks forward to future missions that will build off of what he and others have learned from their time on the moon.

Duke is encouraged by the commercial partnerships that have developed around space exploration, like Space X and Blue Origin. He said that those options would make space available for more people and more science and engineering.

Duke said that the compliment is going to be important in the future.

The South Carolina State Museum in Columbia houses an exhibit full of Duke's moon souvenirs, including a space suit, check list and moon rock. A flight drawing Duke made as a child is included in a series of placards.

Duke narrated a 16-minute video of his time on the moon to a group of students from his hometown of Lancaster, South Carolina, drawing laughs as he described how easy it was to tumble or drop things.

Duke told the students to stay in school, to stay in their careers, and to grow up and mature in life.

Duke said he will keep going as long as he is able, even though he is consulting with a company trying to win a contract for a new lunar rover.

Duke said that he flunked retirement and that he wants to challenge America and the kids to aim high. Everyone is not going to listen, but maybe one or two will.

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