Dirty Old Astronaut
Apollo 16 spaceman Charles Duke, exploring the moon in April 1972, made no effort to conceal his joy. Romping over the lunar surface, he was soon covered from boot to helmet with moon dust. Fellow moonwalker John Young took one look at him and said , "boy, my kids don't get as dirty as you are!"
Replied Duke: "Yeah, but I bet they're not having as much fun, either!"

Moon Madness
The moon request took their toll on Mack Herring, the NASA information officer who had the task of answering the mail. "I can't stand to look at the moon anymore," he groaned as the postal flood poured in during the Apollo. "I just see the letters pilling up."

Business Trip
Often the joker, Al Shepard telephoned his wife from the Cape on the morning of his Apollo 14 takeoff for the moon and informed her that he wouldn't be making his unusual evening call to her. Explained the spaceman: "I'm going to be leaving town."

Achtung, Achtung!
Shepard, Mitchell and Roosa got in their licks, to at the launch pad. As a parting gift fore the German-born Wendt, they had tried to obtain an authentic "Colonel Klink" helmet from TV's "Hogan's Heroes" producers. Failing that, they had a German helmet flown in from Miami - a plastic one complete with swastika and the inscription "Pad Furer". Wendt fell down laughing.

Lunar, 9-3553, Please
On its daily newscast to Apollo 14 during its flight back to Earth, Mission Control read the newspaper story of a man in Missouri who had tried to place a long-distance call to Shepard while the astronaut was on the moon. "Sir," the story reported the operator as having said, "there are no connections for civilians to the moon at this time."
"Too bad," Ed Mitchell chimed in. "That was the call Al was waiting for."

Science at Work
Trouble arose during the Apollo 16 astronauts' last day in space: A red alarm light kept flashing on inside the craft. John Young resourcefully took care of the problem.
"Got it out that time," he radioed Houston, "by kicking the panel"
Astronaut Jim McDivitt joked back from Mission Control: "It's an old American custom - kick it if it doesn't work."

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