Signed by the authors

DUKE, Charles; DUKE, Dotty.

Moonwalker.

Nashville: Oliver-Nelson Books, 1990.

3rd Edition. Hardcover. Fine / Fine. Item #003979
ISBN: 0840791062

8vo (227 x 150 mm). x, 11-284 pp., 4 plates with b/w photographic reproductions. Publisher's red cloth with pictorial dust jacket. A fine copy in fine dust-jacket. Signatures of Charlie Duke and Dotty Duke on first free endpaper in blue ink. ----

Third edition. ISBN 0-8407-9106-2. Charles Duke (born 1935) was accepted into NASA's astronaut group in 1966. He was Capcom on the first moon landing and later a replacement pilot on the Apollo 13 lunar module. Due to Duke's illness with rubella, the actual pilot of the command module, Ken Mattingly, was unable to take part in the mission as he had no antibodies in his blood and an outbreak of the disease was considered likely, but this did not happen. He then became the pilot of the Apollo 16 lunar module under the command of John Watts Young, while Ken Mattingly was the pilot of the command module. For this fifth manned moon landing, he spent a total of around 20 hours on the open lunar surface during three excursions in April 1972. At the age of 36, Duke is the youngest person to have ever been on the moon. Young and Duke set a speed record with the lunar rover. They drove down the North Ray crater at 17 km/h, although the rover was officially only designed for a speed of 8 km/h. The record was broken by the Apollo 17 crew, who still hold it today. During their journeys, Young and Duke collected a total of almost 100 kg of moon rocks. Towards the end of their stay on the Moon, Duke attempted to jump up in reduced gravity, as Young had done several times before. However, Duke lost his balance and fell backwards onto the life support systems in his backpack. According to Duke, this was the only moment of the flight when he felt panic, as a failure in the life support systems or spacesuit would have meant his immediate death. Duke also was the backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 17. Duke, who is married and has two sons, retired from NASA in December 1975. On May 18, 2019, an asteroid was named after him: (26382) Charlieduke (Wikisource). - Visit our website to see more images!

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