Charlie Duke’s family photo

During the Apollo 16 mission in April 1972, astronaut Charlie Duke left a family photograph on the Moon. It shows Duke, his wife Dorothy and their two sons, Charles and Thomas, sitting together on a bench outdoors. Before the flight the photo was sealed in clear plastic, and the family signed the back and added their thumbprints.

The message on the back says it is the family of Astronaut Duke from Planet Earth, who landed on the Moon on 20 April 1972. Duke placed the photo on the gray soil of the Descartes Highlands, took pictures of it with his camera, and left it there. It is one of the most personal objects any astronaut has left on another world.

The mission

Apollo 16 launched on 16 April 1972. John Young and Charlie Duke landed their lunar module in the Descartes Highlands, a hilly, bright region, while their crewmate orbited above in the command module. Duke, aged 36, became the tenth person to walk on the Moon and is still the youngest. The landing was on 21 April by world time, which was still the evening of 20 April in the United States. The crew splashed down in the Pacific on 27 April.

Leaving the photo

On the third and last moonwalk, on 23 April 1972, Duke set the plastic-wrapped picture on the ground and photographed it before setting up a science experiment nearby. That photo of the photo has since become a well-known image. Years earlier, Duke had been the voice of Mission Control during Apollo 11, talking to Armstrong and Aldrin as they landed.

Is it still there?

As far as anyone knows, the photo is still lying where Duke left it, along with his boot prints. The Moon has no air or weather to blow it away. But sunlight on the Moon is not filtered by an atmosphere, so strong ultraviolet light and radiation have probably bleached the picture until it looks almost white. Even so, the photo of it that Duke took in 1972 keeps the family's smiles safe here on Earth.

On the 3D Moon

On the 3D Moon you can find Charlie Duke's family photo hidden at the Apollo 16 site in the Descartes Highlands, lying in its plastic sleeve on the lunar soil.