Apollo to Artemis: USSRC Events Celebrate Space Program’s Past and Future

On Wednesday, April 20, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center (USSRC) kicked off a series of events commemorating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charlie Duke landing on the Moon. 

Apollo 16 Lunar Module Pilot Charlie Duke, the tenth and youngest person to walk on the Moon, was the guest of honor at the USSRC. Delighted Space Campers filled the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s National Geographic Theater to listen to Duke discussing his experiences as an Apollo astronaut on Wednesday afternoon, after which he invited questions from the young audience. 

As the sun began to set, the Davidson Center for Space Exploration’s Saturn V Hall came alive as guests and VIPs gathered for a reception and dinner featuring speakers discussing the past and future of space exploration with a focus on inspiring the next generation of explorers, the Artemis Generation. 

Ben Chandler, Chair of the USSRC Education Foundation, served as Master of Ceremonies for the event. Speakers included Dr. Kimberly Robinson, CEO of the USSRC; Julius Uhlmann, CEO of presenting sponsor MICOR Industries; Brigadier General (USAF, Ret.) Charlie Duke; Marshall Space Flight Center Director Jody Singer; and NASA Associate Administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD) James Free. 

Also in attendance were Mayors Tommy Battle and Paul Finley; AL State Representatives Andy Whitt, Mike Ball, Laura Hall, Howard Sanderford, Rex Reynolds, Anthony Daniels; and AL Senators Tom Butler and Steve Livingston. 

Duke arrived in style, making his grand entrance in a Moon buggy to the cheers of the excited dinner crowd. Following a lengthy standing ovation, MC Ben Chandler quipped “Tell you what, he knows how to make an entrance. Thank you, Charlie.” 

“We are honored to have you, your wife Dottie, and your family joining us this evening,” Chandler said. 

Following a dinner created by Chef David Oreskovich, Dr. Robinson took the stage, where she addressed the audience on the topic of inspiring the Artemis Generation. “We are fortunate to have among us one of only twelve souls in all of recorded history and time to have escaped Earth’s gravity and walked on another celestial body.” 

“If you have a sense of history, tonight should provide you with a goosebump experience. Where else in the world can you hear Charlie Duke discuss living on the Moon for three days as he stands in the shadow of the Lunar Module underneath the Saturn V rocket, next to the Command Module Casper that carried him and his crewmates on the journey of a lifetime and brought them home safely,” Robinson continued.

Another goosebump experience: the name of the Lunar Module that Duke piloted to the Cayley Plain in the Descartes highlands of the Moon was none other than ‘Orion.’ Fifty years later, that name is reborn in that of the Artemis capsule that will take the newest generation of explorers to lunar orbit and back home again. 

Robinson stated that Apollo was never meant to be the pinnacle of space exploration, but rather the foundation. “The development of SLS today has placed us at the start of a new and exciting golden age of exploration: the age of Artemis. NASA’s plan to return to the Moon serves not as a final destination, but as a waypoint that opens the door for even more distant travels and discoveries beyond.” 

Linking the history of Huntsville’s small tech businesses to the future of the space industry, MICOR Industries CEO and Huntsville native Julius Uhlman provided the introduction for Brig. Gen. Duke.

Duke then took the stage, where he began by regaling the audience with fond memories of his crewmates Commander John Young and Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly, as well as the engineers, scientists, and astronauts he came to know at Marshall Space Flight Center. 

Duke recalled a press conference in which he was asked “why did we spend so much money on the moon?” Duke’s response: “We didn’t spend a dime on the moon. It was spent in the United States of America for 400,000 jobs that took us to the moon.” 

“And now we’re going on to Artemis,” Duke continued. “It’s going to be a tremendous opportunity.” 

Duke also discussed his address to the Space Camp cadets earlier in the day: “That’s our future, folks, and we’ve gotta do what we can to motivate them. It’s just extremely important for me to get involved and motivate these kids, and help and support them in different ways…we need to motivate them and to keep them focused on a career that will be meaningful to them and meaningful to our country.” 

Before introducing Marshall Space Flight Center Director Jody Singer, Chandler returned to the stage, noting that he came to Space Camp fourteen times as a child. 

“I want to echo what Dr. Robinson said earlier, what General Duke just said–we’re not just building America’s next great spaceship here in Huntsville, Alabama; we are training and educating America’s next great spacefaring generation, and if you don’t think that that doesn’t have a profound impact on the trajectory of human exploration of space, you’re sorely mistaken because these kids graduate and they leave here, and when they become old enough they vote with that in their minds,” Chandler said. 

They want to vote for candidates who make that a priority and include that in our budget and they recognize that as an investment.”

“I would bet a large amount of money that the next Charlie Duke is going to have a set of Space Camp wings on him and has already passed through our doors,” he continued. “They’ll be part of the Artemis Generation that takes us back to the lunar surface.”