Bean (original) (raw)


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Bean, Alan LaVern


American test pilot astronaut 1963-1981. Fourth person to walk on the moon.

Status: Inactive; Active 1963-1981. Born: 1932-03-15. Died: 2018-05-26. Spaceflights: 2 . Total time in space: 69.66 days. Birth Place: Wheeler, Texas.

Official NASA Biography as of June 2016: Alan Bean (Captain, USN, Ret.) NASA Astronaut (former)

PERSONAL DATA: Born in Wheeler, Texas, on March 15, 1932. Married. Two grown children, a son and a daughter.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Paschal High School in Fort Worth, Texas; received a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Texas in 1955; awarded an honorary doctorate of science from Texas Wesleyan College in 1972; presented an honorary doctorate of engineering science degree from the University of Akron (Ohio) in 1974.

ORGANIZATIONS: Fellow of the American Astronautical Society; member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.

SPECIAL HONORS: Helped establish 11 world records in space and astronautics; awarded two NASA distinguished Service Medals, the Navy Astronaut Wings and two Navy Distinguished Service Medals; recipient of the Rear Admiral William S. Parsons Award for Scientific and Technical Progress, the University of Texas Distinguished Alumnus Award and Distinguished Engineering Graduate Award, the Godfrey L. Cabot Award, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Trustees Award, the Texas Press Associations Man of the Year Award for 1969, the City of Chicago Gold Medal, the Robert J. Collier Trophy for 1973, the Federation Aeronautique Internationales Yuri Gagarin Gold Medal for 1973 and the V.M. Komarov Diploma for 1973 (1974), the Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy for 1975 (1975), the AIAA Octave Chanute Award for 1975 (1975), the AAS Flight Achievement Award for 1974 (1975).

EXPERIENCE: Alan Bean, a Navy ROTC Student at Texas, was commissioned upon graduation in 1955. After completing flight training, he was assigned to a jet attack squadron in Jacksonville, Florida. After a four-year tour of duty, he attended the Navy Test Pilot School, then flew as a test pilot on several types of naval aircraft.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Alan Bean was one of the third group of astronauts named by NASA in October 1963. He served as backup astronaut for the Gemini 10 and Apollo 9 missions.

Captain Bean was lunar module pilot on Apollo 12, mans second lunar landing. In November 1969, Captain Bean and Captain Pete Conrad landed in the moons Ocean of Stormsafter a flight of some 250,000 miles. They explored the lunar surface, deployed several lunar surface experiments, and installed the first nuclear power generator station on the moon to provide the power source. Captain Richard Gordon remained in lunar orbit photographing landing sites for future missions.

Captain Bean was spacecraft commander of Skylab Mission II (SL-3), July 29 to September 25, 1973. With him on the 59-day, 24,400,000 mile world record setting flight were scientist-astronaut Dr. Owen K. Garriott and Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Jack R. Lousma. Mission II accomplished 150% of its pre-mission forecast goals.

On his next assignment, Captain Bean was backup spacecraft commander of the United States flight crew for the joint American-Russian Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

Captain Bean has logged 1,671 hours and 45 minutes in spaceof which 10 hours and 26 minutes were spent in EVAs on the moon and in earth orbit. Captain Bean has flown 27 types of military aircraft as well as many civilian airplanes. He has logged more than 7,145 hours flying timeincluding 4,890 hours in jet aircraft. Captain Bean retired from the Navy in October 1975 but continued as head of the Astronaut Candidate Operations and Training Group within the Astronaut Office in a civilian capacity.

Bean resigned from NASA in June 1981 to devote his full time to painting. He said his decision was based on the fact that, in his 18 years as an astronaut, he was fortunate enough to visit worlds and see sights no artists eye, past or present, has ever viewed firsthand and he hopes to express these experiences through the medium of art. He is pursuing this dream at his home and studio in Houston.

AUGUST 1993

This is the only version available from NASA. Updates must be sought from the above named individual.

Official Biography

NAME: Alan L. Bean

BIRTHPLACE AND DATE: Bean was born March 15, 1932, in Wheeler, Texas.

EDUCATION: Bean received a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Texas in 1955.

EXPERIENCE: As a Navy ROTC student, Bean was commissioned after graduation from college. After completing flight training, he was assigned to a jet attack squadron at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida. After a four-year tour, he attended the Navy Test Pilot School and thereafter flew several types of new Navy aircraft as a test pilot.

Bean was selected by NASA in the third group of astronauts in October 1963. He served on the backup crews of Gemini 10 and Apollo 9 missions before assignment as Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 12. On November 19, 1969, Commander Pete Conrad and Bean landed on the Ocean of Storms and became the third and fourth humans to walk on the moon, while Richard Gordon orbited overhead in the Command Module. During two outside excursions they deployed several surface experiments, powered by the first nuclear thermal generator deployed on the moon. Their pinpoint landing allowed them to inspect an unmanned Surveyor spacecraft that landed there two years earlier. They collected and returned 30 kg of rocks and lunar soil for study on Earth.

Bean commanded the second manned Skylab mission, Skylab 3, launched on July 28, 1973. The other crew members were Science Pilot Owen Garriott and Command Module pilot Jack Lousma. They would spend 59 days aboard the space workshop. On the third EVA of the mission, Bean and Garriott installed a new set of gyroscopes to replace failed units. During the course of the mission Earth resources photography, solar astronomy, metals processing and biological experiments were conducted.

Bean retired from the Navy in 1975 but continued with NASA as head of the Astronaut Candidate Operations and Training Group. He retired from NASA in 1981 and thereafter became a space painter of some repute.



More at: Bean.


Family: Astronaut. Country: USA. Spacecraft: Gemini, Skylab. Flights: Gemini 10, Apollo 9, Apollo 12, Skylab 3, Apollo (ASTP). Projects: Apollo, ASTP. Agency: USN. Bibliography: 5152.


Photo Gallery



Skylab 3 Skylab 3Astronaut Alan Bean flies the Astronaut Manoeuvring EquipmentCredit: NASA



1932 March 15 - .


1963 June 5 - .


1963 October 17 - .


1963 October 18 - .


1964 February 3 - .


1965 February 16 - .


1966 July 18 - . 22:20 GMT - . Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: Cape Canaveral LC19. LV Family: Titan. Launch Vehicle: Titan II GLV.


1969 March 3 - . 16:00 GMT - . Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: Cape Canaveral LC39A. Launch Platform: LUT2. Launch Vehicle: Saturn V.


1969 November 14 - . 16:22 GMT - . Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: Cape Canaveral LC39A. Launch Platform: LUT2. Launch Vehicle: Saturn V.


1969 November 19 - . 11:32 GMT - .


1969 November 20 - .


1969 November 20 - . 03:54 GMT - .


1969 November 24 - .


1973 July 28 - . 11:10 GMT - . Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: Cape Canaveral LC39B. Launch Platform: LUT1. LV Family: Saturn I. Launch Vehicle: Saturn IB.


1973 September 22 - . 11:18 GMT - .


1973 September 25 - . 22:19 GMT - .


1975 July 15 - . 19:50 GMT - . Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: Cape Canaveral LC39B. Launch Platform: LUT1. LV Family: Saturn I. Launch Vehicle: Saturn IB.


2018 May 26 - .



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