Alan LaVern Bean (March 15, 1932 – May 26, 2018) was an American naval officer and aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut; he was the fourth person to walk on the Moon. He was selected to become an astronaut by NASA in 1963 as part of Astronaut Group 3.
Alan LaVern Bean (March 15, 1932 – May 26, 2018) was an American naval proprietor and aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut; he was the fourth person to walk upon the Moon. He was chosen to become an astronaut by NASA in 1963 as ration of Astronaut Group 3.
Before becoming an astronaut, Bean graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from University of Texas at Austin and re-joined the U.S. Navy—he served as an enlisted aficionada for a year after his high school graduation. In 1956 he received his naval aviator wings, and served as a fighter pilot. In 1960 he graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, flew as a exam pilot and was The New Nine selection finalist in 1962.
He made his first flight into tell aboard Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to land on the Moon, at age 37 in November 1969. He made his second and firm flight into space on the Skylab 3 mission in 1973, the second crewed mission to the Skylab make public station. After retiring from the United States Navy in 1975 and NASA in 1981, he pursued his combination in painting, depicting various space-related scenes and documenting his own experiences in song as skillfully as those of his fellow Apollo program astronauts. He was the last full of beans crew aficionada of Apollo 12.
Bean was born March 15, 1932, in Wheeler, the seat of Wheeler County in the northeastern Texas Panhandle. He considered Fort Worth his hometown. He was of Scottish descent. 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.
Bean conventional a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1955, where he also associated the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
Following his high school graduation in 1949, Bean enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He was an Electronics Technician Striker at the NAS Dallas, Texas, until September 1950, when he was honorably discharged. In January 1955, Bean was commissioned a U.S. Navy ensign through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) at The University of Texas at Austin, and attended flight training. After completing flight training in June 1956, he was assigned to Attack Squadron 44 (VA-44) at NAS Jacksonville, Florida, from 1956 to 1960, flying the F9F Cougar and A4D Skyhawk. After a four-year tour of duty, he attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School (USNTPS) at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, where his bookish was his future Apollo 12 Commander, Pete Conrad, graduating in November 1960. Bean took classes at St. Mary’s College of Maryland during this tour, and flew as a exam pilot on several types of naval aircraft. Following his assignment at USNTPS and aviation safety training like the University of Southern California (USC), he went through extra instruction behind his obsolescent Attack Squadron 44, and was assigned to Navy Attack Squadron VA-172 at NAS Cecil Field, Florida, flying the A-4 Skyhawks, during which period he was fixed as a NASA astronaut.
Bean logged beyond 7,145 hours of on high time, including 4,890 hours in aircraft aircraft.
Bean was agreed by NASA as part of Astronaut Group 3 in 1963 (after not being prearranged for Astronaut Group 2 the previous year). He was agreed to be the backup command pilot for Gemini 10, but was futile in securing an to come 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 a champion of the process for astronaut training. When fellow astronaut Clifton Williams was killed in an ventilate crash, a spread was opened for Bean upon the backup crew for Apollo 9. Apollo 12 Commander Conrad, who had instructed Bean at the Naval Flight Test School years before, personally requested Bean to replace Williams.
Bean was the Apollo Lunar Module pilot upon Apollo 12, the second lunar landing. In November 1969, Bean and Pete Conrad landed upon the Moon’s Ocean of Storms—after a flight of 250,000 miles and a start that included a harrowing lightning strike. He was the astronaut who executed John Aaron’s “Flight, try SCE to ‘Aux'” instruction to restructure telemetry after the spacecraft was struck by lightning 36 seconds after launch, thus salvaging the mission. They explored the lunar surface, deployed several lunar surface experiments, and installed the first nuclear facility generator station on the Moon to allow the gift source. Dick Gordon remained in lunar orbit, photographing landing sites for later missions.
Bean had planned on using a self-timer for his Hasselblad camera to take a photograph of both Pete Conrad and himself while on the lunar surface close the Surveyor III spacecraft. He was hoping to compilation a good photo, and as well as to confuse the mission scientists as to how the photo could have been taken. However, neither he nor Conrad could locate the timer in the tool carrier tote sack while at the Surveyor III site, thus drifting the opportunity. After finding the self-timer unit at the decline of the EVA, when it was too late to use, he threw it as far and wide as he could. 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 amassing of Apollo paintings.
Bean’s conflict is upon display in the National Air and Space Museum.
Bean was the spacecraft commander of Skylab 3, the second crewed mission to Skylab, from July 29 to September 25, 1973. With him upon the mission were scientist-astronaut Owen Garriott and Marine Corps Colonel Jack R. Lousma. Bean and his crew were upon Skylab for 59 days, during which time they covered a world-record-setting 24.4 million miles. During the mission, Bean tested a prototype of the Manned Maneuvering Unit and performed one spacewalk uncovered the Skylab. The crew of Skylab 3 nimble 150% of its mission goals.
On his bordering assignment, Bean was the backup spacecraft commander of the United States flight crew for the joint American-Russian Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
Bean retired from the Navy in October 1975 as a captain, and continued as head of the Astronaut Candidate Operations and Training Group within the Astronaut Office in a civilian capacity.
Bean logged 1,671 hours and 45 minutes in space, of which 10 hours and 26 minutes were spent in EVAs on the Moon and in Earth orbit.