The Family That Lives on the Moon

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In the lunar dust lies a snapshot of a happy family, left there by Apollo astronaut Charlie Duke in 1972. But that journey into space nearly tore apart his life on Earth, writes Andrew Smith

The photo looks familiar, because we've seen so many like it. Something in the two boys' Brady Bunch haircuts suggests 1970s America: otherwise it could be any smiling family portrait on any mantelpiece in the world. Except that this photo isn't on a mantelpiece, it's on the Moon, and the story it tells is far more extraordinary than the image first suggests.

In 1972, Charlie Duke became the tenth of only 12 people to walk on the Moon, where he left behind a portrait of himself, his …