Apollo 16 Lunar Module Pilot Charles M. Duke is among three astronauts slated to attend the Australian International Airshow this year.
AMDA Foundation announced yesterday that Duke, a NASA legend who was also the capsule communicator on the Apollo 11 mission, will be at Avalon 2025 alongside space shuttle pilot Mike Bloomfield and Australian Space Agency astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg, who last year became the first person to qualify as an astronaut under the Australian flag.
The trio will be present at the USA Pavilion during Endeavour Scholarship Ceremony on the Wednesday and the careers day on the Friday.
At 36, Duke was the youngest person to walk on the moon when he guided the lunar module Orion onto the moon's surface at Descartes HIghlands. Now aged 89, Duke is still the youngest person to have walked on the moon as the program finished with Apollo 17, the only living crew member of which Harrison Schmitt is three months older than Duke.
Duke also served as capsule communicator (CAPCOM) for Apollo 11, speaking the famous words to Armstrong and Aldrin, "Roger, Twank ...Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot!"
Unlike his Apollo 16 crewmates, John Young and Ken Mattingly, Duke elected not to go on and fly the space shuttle, resigning from NASA in 1976.
Mike Bloomfield flew three shuttle missions between 1997 and 2002: STS-86 (Atlantis), STS-97 (Endeavour) and he commanded STS-110 (Atlantis), logging 753 hours in space. He is a former Deputy Director of Flight Crew Operations for NASA, and was Vice President of the abandoned Constellation program for Alliant Techsystems.
Katherine Bennell-Pegg is an Australian astronaut and Director of Space Technology at the Australian Space Agency. Bennell-Pegg qualified by completing the European Space Agency (ESA) Basic Training curriculum last year. With double engineering degrees in Aeronautical and Space Engineering, and Advanced Science majoring in Physics, she is also a former systems engineer at Airbus.
The Australian Space Agency sponsored Bennell-Pegg's ESA training, making her the first person to qualify as an astronaut under the Australian flag. Previous Australian astronauts Paul Scully-Power and Andy Thomas both qualified as NASA astronauts under the US flag.
Avalon 2025 kicks-off on 25 March with the trade days running from Tuesday 25 to Friday (noon) 28 March, with the public admitted to the show for the Friday night show and the weekend display programs.