SC State Museum celebrates 50th Anniversary of Apollo 16 mission

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) -Students are heading to the South Carolina State Museum to celebrate history. This month is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 16 mission to the moon. A Palmetto native is being honored as well.

It’s a field trip day for Allison Jeffcoat’s third and fourth-grade class at the State Museum in Columbia. Students from Sandhills School are exploring everything from the revolutionary war to the planetarium inside. “I have to keep them with me they want to run off and see everything,” Jeffcoat said. “All kids are fascinated with space, they love space.” Jeffcoat says her students have been learning about space in class and the museum offers a place for them to travel to space thru interactive exhibits. “I just hope they get a real hands-on view of space because they’re not at school when it’s dark so we really can’t see it unless we come to somewhere like this,” Jeffcoat said.

April is a huge month for the museum. David Dickson with the state museum says this month it’s celebrating the Apollo 16 mission to the moon by one of South Carolina’s very own. “It’s the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 16 Lunar Mission, which launched all the way back in 1972. Carrying on it south Carolinian Charles Duke who was the only South Carolinian to actually walk on the moon,” Dickson said.

Charles duke who is 86 years old is one of the youngest and first astronauts from South Carolina to walk on the moon, collect moon rocks and explore the lunar surface in the 1970s. He was 36 when he went to space. Dickson says other scientists from the Palmetto State also helped get us to the moon. But says Duke was the only one to eat grits in space. “He is likely going to be coming back here to the museum later on in April, really excited to see him and have them talk about the moon in his experience with Apollo 16,” Dickson said. Several events are happening this month at the museum. For a complete listing click here.

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