Alan Bean

Alan LaVern Bean (March 15, 1932 – May 26, 2018) was an American naval officer and aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, NASA astronaut and painter. He was selected to become an astronaut by NASA in 1963 as part of Astronaut Group 3, and was the fourth person to walk on the Moon.

Before becoming an astronaut, Bean graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from University of Texas at Austin in 1955 and re-joined the U.S. Navy—he served as an enlisted member for a year after his high school graduation. He received his naval aviator wings in 1956 and served as a fighter pilot. In 1960, he graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, flew as a test pilot and was The New Nine selection finalist in 1962.

Bean made his first flight into space aboard Apollo 12 in November 1969, the second crewed mission to land on the Moon. He spent over seven hours walking on the Moon during two lunar excursions. He made his second and final flight into space on the Skylab 3 mission in 1973, the second crewed mission to the Skylab space station.

After retiring from the United States Navy in 1975 and NASA in 1981, Bean pursued his interest in painting, depicting various space-related scenes and documenting his own experiences in space as well as those of his fellow Apollo program astronauts. He was the last living crew member of Apollo 12.

Biography

Early life and education

Bean was born March 15, 1932, in Wheeler, the seat of Wheeler County in the northeastern Texas Panhandle, to parents Arnold Horace Bean and Frances Caroline Bean ( Murphy). He considered Fort Worth his hometown. As a boy, he lived in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, where his father worked for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. Bean was a Boy Scout and he earned the rank of First Class. He graduated from R. L. Paschal High School in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1949. Following his high school graduation in 1949, Bean enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve.

Military service

He was an Electronics Technician Striker at the NAS Dallas, Texas, until September 1950, when he was honorably discharged. he attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School (USNTPS) at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, where his instructor was his future Apollo 12 Commander, Pete Conrad, graduating in November 1960. and flew as a test pilot on several types of naval aircraft. Following his assignment at USNTPS and aviation safety training with the University of Southern California (USC), he went through additional instruction with his old Attack Squadron 44,

Bean logged more than 7,145 hours of flying time, including 4,890 hours in jet aircraft.

NASA career

Bean was selected by NASA as part of Astronaut Group 3 in 1963 (after not being selected for Astronaut Group 2 the previous year). He was selected to be the backup command pilot for Gemini 10, but was unsuccessful in securing an early Apollo flight assignment. He was placed in the Apollo Applications Program in the interim. In that capacity, he was the first astronaut to dive in the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator and was a champion of the process for astronaut training. When fellow astronaut Clifton Williams was killed in an air crash, a space was opened for Bean on the backup crew for Apollo 9. Apollo 12 Commander Conrad, who had instructed Bean at the Naval Test Pilot School years before, personally requested Bean to replace Williams. His paintings of what this photo would have looked like (titled The Fabulous Photo We Never Took) and one of his fruitless search for the timer (Our Little Secret) are included in his collection of Apollo paintings.

Bean's suit is on display in the National Air and Space Museum.

Skylab

thumb|left|Bean shaving during the Skylab 3 mission

Bean was the spacecraft commander of Skylab 3, the second crewed mission to Skylab, from July 29 to September 25, 1973. With him on the mission were scientist-astronaut Owen Garriott and Marine Corps Colonel Jack R. Lousma. Bean and his crew were on Skylab for 59 days, during which time they covered a world-record-setting 24.4 million miles.

Bean logged 1,671 hours and 45 minutes in space while at NASA, of which 10 hours and 26 minutes were spent in EVAs on the Moon and in Earth orbit.

Bean's paintings include Lunar Grand Prix and Rock and Roll on the Ocean of Storms, and he used real Moon dust in his paintings. When he began painting, he realized that keepsake patches from his space suit were dirty with Moon dust. He added tiny pieces of the patches to his paintings, which made them unique. He also used a hammer, used to pound the flagpole into the lunar surface, and a bronzed Moon boot to texture his paintings.

In July 2009, for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, Bean exhibited his lunar paintings at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

Personal life and death

thumb|right|Alan Bean museum marker in [[Wheeler, Texas]]

thumb|right|Bean presents a piece of Moon rock at the [[Gasometer Oberhausen in March 2010]]

Bean took a piece of Clan MacBean tartan to the Moon. In recognition of his Scottish ancestry, Bean stated:

He married Sue Ragsdale, a fellow graduate of the University of Texas on April 19, 1955, shortly before her graduation. With Ragsdale, Bean had a son, Clay, and a daughter, Amy Sue. His death followed the sudden onset of illness two weeks before while he was in Fort Wayne, Indiana. At the time of his death, Bean was married to his second wife, Leslie, and was also survived by his sister, Paula Scott.

Legacy

He was awarded with several awards and decorations during his career. He received the Rear Admiral William S. Parsons Award for Scientific and Technical Progress,

Bean was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1983, the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1997, the International Air & Space Hall of Fame in 2010, and the National Aviation Hall of Fame for 2010. He was also a fellow of the American Astronautical Society and a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. Bean, the first Texan to walk on the Moon, was awarded the Texas Press Associations Texan of the Year Award for 1969. The 1973 Robert J. Collier Trophy was awarded to NASA and the Skylab crew. Bean was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Texas Wesleyan College in 1972, and was presented an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering Science degree from the University of Akron (Ohio) in 1974. Bean was the recipient of Fédération Aéronautique Internationale's prestigious Yuri Gagarin Gold Medal for 1973 in Sydney, Australia. In 1975, President Ford presented Skylab commander Gerald Carr with the Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy at a White House ceremony, on behalf of all Skylab astronauts (including Bean). Bean was a co-recipient of AIAA's Octave Chanute Award for 1975, along with fellow Skylab 3 astronauts Jack Lousma and Owen Garriott. In 2019, Northrop Grumman named the spacecraft for the NG-12 mission the S.S. Alan Bean.

In media

In the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, Bean was portrayed by Dave Foley. Swedish indie pop artist Stina Nordenstam has a song called "The Return of Alan Bean" on her 1991 debut album Memories of a Color. British indie rock band Hefner released a single called "Alan Bean" in 2001, writing from the perspective of Bean during Apollo 12. For her 2019 novel, America Was Hard to Find, American writer Kathleen Alcott based her description of the Apollo landing on interviews she conducted with Bean.

Books

My Life As An Astronaut (1989)
Apollo: An Eyewitness Account (with Andrew Chaikin) (1998)
Into the Sunlit Splendor: The Aviation Art of William S. Phillips (with Ann Cooper, Charles S. Cooper and Wilson Hurley) (2005)
Mission Control, This is Apollo: The Story of the First Voyages to the Moon (with Andrew Chaikin) (2009)
Painting Apollo: First Artist on Another World (2009)

Bean's in-flight Skylab diary is featured in Homesteading Space: the Skylab Story, a history of the Skylab program co-authored by fellow astronauts Dr. Joseph Kerwin and Dr. Owen Garriott and writer David Hitt, published in 2008.

References

External links

Limited Edition Art: Prints and Canvases http://www.greenwichworkshop.com/bean/
Astronautix biography of Alan Bean
Bean at Encyclopedia of Science
Official publisher website for Homesteading Space