Civic receptions were held for astronaut Charles Duke at two different Kyabram venues in 1990.
Charles was speaking at the Wilf Cox Complex and the Tijuana as a guest of the local chapter of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship on Monday, April 9, 1990. Charles was a member of the Businessmen’s Fellowship in America.
Charles landed on the moon in April 1972 and spent three days there. When the rocket lifted off from Earth it used two million litres of fuel in the first two minutes and 40 seconds. The rocket itself was 11 metres wide and over 100 metres long.
He said he and the other two astronauts who were with him felt “right” at home on the moon and that the moon had rolling, beautiful terrain.
The moon was like a big basalt rock that had been bombarded by meteorites. Some areas had just a fine covering of moon dust while other areas had a thicker covering. You would sink in about 6cm if walking on the thicker covering.
Charles said there was no atmosphere on the moon and from daylight to dark took the equivalent of two weeks.
Charles thought as he looked down on Earth, 30,000km away, that you couldn’t make out different races of people, that everything was the same and we needed to think like that more often.
Some students from St Augustine’s College were invited to attend the reception at the Wilf Cox Complex.
∎ Compiled by Eileen Sullivan, Kyabram Historical Society voluntary librarian, from the files of the Free Press.
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