- Born
- Died
- Birth nameAlan LaVern Bean
- Height5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
- Alan Bean first started out as a Navy Test Pilot, he flew over 5500 hours, and flew 27 different aircrafts. Alan Bean became an astronaut in 1963. But wasn't picked for any missions for sometime. It wasn't until fellow astronaut, Charles Conrad (aka Pete), asked him if he wanted to take part on Apollo 12 after the death of C.C. Williams, whom Bean went on to replace. On Apollo 12, he was The Lunar Excursion Module pilot (LEM Pilot) and became the 4th man to walk on the moon in November of 1969. He flew again on Skylab 3, and was in space for 59 days in 1973. Alan retired from NASA in 1981. He is now an artist, painting his experiences on the moon. He released a book of his artwork in 1998, titled "Apollo: An Eyewitness Account by Astronaut/Explorer/Artist/Moonwalker Alan Bean".- IMDb Mini Biography By: Brian Blueskye <BrianBlu23@aol.com>
- SpousesSue Ragsdale (divorced, 2 children)Leslie(? - May 26, 2018) (his death)
- Flew two Apollo era flights. On Apollo 12, he, Charles Conrad (aka Pete) and Richard Gordon conducted the second trip to the moon. Bean was the Lunar Module Pilot and as such accompanied Conrad to land and walk on the surface of the moon. They brought back lunar rocks and pieces of the Surveyor 3 probe. As the Commander of Skylab 2, he flew with Jack Lousma and Owen Garriott and set a duration record of 59 days in space.
- Holds an Aeronautics Engineering degree from the University of Texas. His wife, Leslie, is an employee at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, TX.
- One of only three of the twelve astronauts who walked on the moon to stay with NASA and fly further space missions. The others were Bean's commander on Apollo XII, Pete Conrad, and Apollo XVI Commander John Young. Conrad and Bean each commanded a Skylab mission in 1973, and Young flew the inaugural Space Shuttle mission, STS-1, in 1981, and a fully crewed mission, STS-9, in 1983.
- This has got to be the most spectacular sight of the whole flight. You can't see the Earth. It's black just like the space. [on witnessing the sun eclipsed by the earth from the moon]
- Hey, it's real nice moving around up here. You don't seem to get tired. You really hop like a bunny.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content