We catch up with the 10th man to ever walk on the moon, Charlie Duke who talks about his passion for space and his moon mission, and the sheer tension in mission control as the landing took place.

“I was very fortunate, we had 9 missions to the moon, and I was involved in 5 of those. Only flew once, Apollo 16, but my second greatest adventure was talking to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin when they landed on the moon on Apollo 11. Then 2 and a half years later, I got to land on the moon with John Young.”

Comparing the tension

“Of course, you had to focus on your role of making sure you made a good landing, but to be honest, the tension in mission control, when they landed, was greater than when I actually landed on the moon. And that’s because when you really do it, you’ve got a window that you look out, the dynamics of it and watching the instruments as you’re working down to the moon. Whereas at mission control, you are just looking at a screen and listening to these guys, and you get very tense about it. But on the moon, it wasn’t that bad at all!”

Watch the full video, as Charlie talks about everything in space – NASA, being on the moon, and his love for everything he does!

Subscribe to the FINN weekly newsletter