Mark your calendars for this exciting event, as astronaut Charlie Duke will be at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor for the 2021 McLane Lecture.

The event is scheduled for Wednesday, September 29 starting at 11am in the Frank & Sue Mayborn Campus Center. It's a free event and open to the public.

The purpose of the McLane Lecture is to bring outstanding individuals to the UMHB campus to share their experiences and insights about leadership, government, business, and faith. You could say Duke will be the most out of this world guest in the event's history. (Sorry, sorry...)

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Charlie Duke is a great American. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1957, then joined the United States Air Force. In 1966, he was named as one of 19 men for NASA's fifth group of astronauts. In 1969, Duke would become part of the support crew for Apollo 10 and work CAPCOM for Apollo 11.

Duke would eventually become the 10th and youngest person to walk on the moon. Apollo 16 landed on the moon in April of 1972. Duke was 36 years and 201 days old.

He would eventually retire from NASA on January 1, 1976 after logging 4,147 hours of flying time. Out of that, 3,632 hours were spent flying jets, 265 hours were in space, and 21 hours and 38 minutes were spent in EVA, extravehicular activity. (No, he wasn't an Evangelion pilot. Sorry, anime fans.)

Duke has garnered many awards and honors, including being inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1997 and being named Texan of the Year for 2020.

This lecture is certainly one to attend with Duke being the featured speaker.

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