Apollo 16 Astronaut Describes Near-Death Experience During Moon Mission

Astronaut Charles Duke photographed collecting lunar samples at Station 1 — Astronaut Charles M. Duke Jr., lunar module pilot, is photographed collecting lunar samples at Station No. 1, during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity (EVA), at the Descartes landing site. This picture, looking eastward, was taken by astronaut John W. Young, commander. Duke is standing at the rim of Plum Crater. The parked Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) can be seen in the left background. While astronauts Young and Duke descended in the Lunar Module (LM) "Orion" to explore the Descartes highlands region of the moon, astronaut Thomas K. Mattingly II, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) "Casper" in lunar orbit. NASA/JSC

An astronaut from NASA’s Apollo 16 lunar mission looked back on the time he almost died while on the Moon. According to the astronaut, his near-death experience happened while he was joking around on the lunar surface.

Astronaut Charles Duke served as the lunar module pilot for Apollo 16, which was NASA’s 10^th crewed mission for the Apollo program and the fifth to land on the Moon. For the mission, he was accompanied by Commander John Young and Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly.

Duke recently visited the Cradle of Aviation Museum in New York to talk about his experience as an astronaut. The event was organized in preparation for the 50^th anniversary of NASA’s first crewed mission to the Moon.

While at the event, Duke shared a harrowing experience he encountered during the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. While on the surface of the Moon, he and Young decided to make the most out of the weightless environment by trying to break Earth-based records in athleticism such as high jumping.

Although being physically fit and athletic is one of the requirements for astronauts, Duke admitted that he never practiced jumping in a weightless environment while wearing a spacesuit.

As Duke and Young were horsing around, the former managed to jump 4 feet in the air. He regarded it as an impressive feat especially since he was wearing a bulky and heavy spacesuit at that time.

In order to achieve a higher jump, Duke straightened his body mid-air. The move, however, caused him to lose his balance as he descended back to the lunar ground. Duke noted that if he fell on his back, his backpack containing his suit’s life-support system would have likely cracked, leading to the loss of breathable air.

“The backpack weighed as much as I did,” he told Business Insider. “So I went over backwards. It’s a fiberglass shell, and it contained all you life-support systems. If it broke, I was dead.”

Luckily, Duke managed to twist his body and landed on his right side. Despite landing safely, the incident left Duke and Young deeply terrified and concerned.

“My heart was pounding,” Duke said. “John Young, my commander, came over and looked down and said, ‘That wasn’t very smart, Charlie.’ And I said, ‘Help me up, John,’ and I got real quiet.”

Duke noted that his experience taught him to never do anything in space that he hasn’t practiced on Earth.

NASA Moon Space