Alan Bean

The fourth person to walk on the Moon

Quick Facts

Alan Bean was one of the third group of astronauts named by NASA in October 1963.

Alan Bean was the lunar module pilot on Apollo 12, the second crewed lunar landing.

Bean resigned from NASA in June 1981 to devote his full time to painting.

Apollo 12 Astronaut Alan Bean poses for a portrait in front of a mock-up of the Lunar Module.

Al Bean descends the ladder from the Lunar Module to the Moon's surface. — AS12-46-6728 (19 Nov. 1969) — Astronaut Alan L. Bean, lunar module pilot for the Apollo 12 mission, is about to step off the ladder of the Lunar Module to join astronaut Charles Conrad Jr., mission commander, in extravehicular activity (EVA). Conrad and Bean descended in the Apollo 12 LM to explore the moon while astronaut Richard F. Gordon Jr., command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules in lunar orbit.
NASA

AS12-46-6807 (19 Nov. 1969) — Astronaut Alan L. Bean, lunar module pilot, traverses with the two sub packages of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) during the first Apollo 12 extravehicular activity (EVA). Bean deployed the ALSEP components 300 feet from the Lunar Module (LM). The LM and deployed erectable S-band antenna can be seen in the background.

Biography

Alan Bean

Alan 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.

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Astronaut Alan Bean

NASA

Featured Story

Alan Bean

Alan Bean walked on the moon on Apollo 12, commanded the second Skylab crew and then resigned after 18 years as…

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All Crewed Missions

Apollo 12

The primary mission objectives of the second crewed lunar landing included an extensive series of lunar exploration tasks by the lunar module, or LM, crew, as well as the deployment…

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Nov 24, 1969 01:43 UTC

All Crewed Missions

Skylab 3

The second crew to inhabit Skylab, launched on July 28, 1973, spent a then record-breaking 59.5 days in space. The mission accomplished 150% of their mission goals while completing 858…

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Sep 25, 1973 05:07 UTC