Charlie Duke
Apollo 16 astronaut; last surviving moonwalker and youngest ever to walk on the Moon, whose LM was also named Orion.
Last refreshed: 6 April 2026
With Apollo 16's own Orion pilot watching from Earth, what does Artemis II owe the past?
Latest on Charlie Duke
- Why did Charlie Duke send a message to the Artemis II crew?
- Duke flew Apollo 16 in 1972 in a Lunar Module also named Orion. He messaged the Artemis II crew to note a family photo he left on the Moon is still there, directly below their flyby path.Source: Artemis II mission updates
- Is Charlie Duke still alive?
- Yes. As of April 2026, Duke is the last surviving moonwalker from the Apollo programme, now in his 90s.
- How many people have walked on the Moon?
- Twelve people walked on the Moon during six Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972. Charlie Duke, Apollo 16's LM pilot, was the tenth and the youngest.Source: NASA
- Why is the Artemis capsule called Orion?
- NASA named the Artemis spacecraft Orion partly in homage to Apollo 16's Lunar Module, which bore the same name during the 1972 mission Charlie Duke flew.Source: NASA
Background
Charlie Duke is in the news because his historic Apollo 16 Lunar Module was also named Orion, creating a rare living thread between the 1972 Moon landing and the Artemis II mission. On Easter 2026, Duke transmitted a personal message to the Artemis II crew noting that a family photograph placed on the lunar surface 54 years ago is still lying directly below their flyby path.
Duke flew as Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 16 in April 1972, becoming the tenth person to walk on the Moon and the youngest moonwalker in history at 36 years old. He and Commander John Young spent nearly three days on the lunar surface near Descartes Highlands, covering 27 kilometres on the rover and collecting 95 kg of samples. His LM bore the name Orion, the same name NASA chose for its deep-space capsule four decades later.
Duke is now the last surviving moonwalker from any Apollo mission, a living connection between the Apollo era and the Artemis programme it has explicitly set out to honour. His Easter message to the Artemis II crew carried that continuity publicly, giving the mission a moment of human resonance that no official statement could manufacture.