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 Association’s Man of the 

Year Award for 1969, the City of Chicago Gold Medal, the Robert J. Collier Trophy for 1973, the Federation Aeronautique 

Internationale’s 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, man’s second lunar landing. In November 1969, Captain Bean and Captain 

Pete Conrad landed in the moon’s Ocean of Storms—after 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 AmericanRussian Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

Captain Bean has 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. Captain Bean has flown 27 types of military aircraft as well as many civilian airplanes. He has logged 

more than 7,145 hours flying time—including 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.

- more -

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

Biographical Data

 Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

 Houston, Texas 77058
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 artist’s 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.