Alan Bean Alan LaVern Bean ( born March 15 , 1932 ) is a former NASA astronaut and currently a painter . Bean was selected to become an astronaut by NASA in 1963 as part of Astronaut Group 3 . He made his first flight into space aboard Apollo 12 , the second manned mission to land on the Moon , at the age of thirty - seven years in November 1969 . During this mission , Bean became the fourth person to walk on the Moon . He made his second and final flight into space on the Skylab 3 mission in 1973 , the second manned mission to the Skylab space station . After retiring from the United States Navy in 1975 and NASA in 1981 , Bean pursued his interest in painting , depicting various space - related scenes and documenting his own experiences in space as well as that of his fellow Apollo Program astronauts . Early life . Bean was born in Wheeler , the seat of Wheeler County in the northeastern Texas Panhandle . He is 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 graduated from R . L . Paschal High School in Fort Worth , Texas . He received a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1955 . At UT he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity ( Omega Chi chapter ) . After a four year tour as a fighter pilot assigned to a jet attack squadron in Jacksonville , Florida , he attended the U . S . Naval Test Pilot School , where his instructor was his future Apollo 12 Commander Pete Conrad . He then flew as a test pilot on several types of naval aircraft . He was awarded an honorary doctorate of science from Texas Wesleyan College in 1972 , and was presented an honorary doctorate of engineering science degree from the University of Akron ( Ohio ) in 1974 . NASA experience . Apollo . Bean was selected by NASA as part of Astronaut Group 3 in 1963 ( after not being selected for Astronaut Group 2 the previous year ) . He was selected to be the backup Command Pilot for Gemini 10 but was unsuccessful in securing an early Apollo flight assignment . He was placed in the Apollo Applications Program in the interim . In that capacity , he is 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 air crash , a space was opened for Bean on the back - up 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 lunar module pilot on Apollo 12 , the second lunar landing . In November 1969 , Al Bean and Pete Conrad landed in the Moon ' s Ocean of Storms — after a flight of 250 , 000 miles and a launch that included a harrowing lightning strike . Bean was the astronaut who executed John Aaron ' s famous " Flight , try SCE to ' Aux ' " instruction to restore 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 power generator station on the Moon to provide the power source . Dick Gordon remained in lunar orbit photographing landing sites for future missions . Bean had planned on using a self - timer for his Hasselblad camera in order to take a photograph of both himself and Pete Conrad while on the lunar surface near the Surveyor III spacecraft . Bean was hoping not only to record a wonderful photo , but also to confuse the scientists back home on how the photo could have been taken . However , neither he nor Conrad could locate the timer in the tool carrier tote bag while at the Surveyor III site and thus lost the opportunity . Bean did not locate the self - timer until the very end of the EVA when it was too late to use - at which point Bean threw it as hard as he could . Bean ’ s 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 collection of Apollo paintings . Bean ' s Moon suit is on display in the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History in Fort Worth , Texas . Skylab . Bean was also the spacecraft commander of Skylab 3 , the second manned mission to Skylab , July 29 , 1973 to September 25 , 1973 . With him on the 59 - day , 24 , 400 , 000 mile world record setting flight were scientist - astronaut Dr . Owen Garriott and Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Jack Lousma . During the mission Bean also tested a prototype of the Manned Maneuvering Unit and performed one space walk outside the Skylab . Post - flight experience . On his next assignment , Bean was 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 but continued as head of the Astronaut Candidate Operations and Training Group within the Astronaut Office in a civilian capacity . Bean as an artist . Bean resigned from NASA in June 1981 to devote his time to painting . Many of his paintings hang on the walls of space enthusiasts . 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 hoped to express these experiences through the medium of art . He is pursuing this dream at his home and studio in Houston . As a painter , Bean wanted to add color to the Moon . " I had to figure out a way to add color to the Moon without ruining it , " he remarked . In his paintings , the lunar landscape is not a monotonous gray , but shades of various colors . " If I were a scientist painting the Moon , I would paint it gray . I ' m an artist , so I can add colors to the Moon " , said Bean . Alan Bean ' s paintings include " Lunar Grand Prix " and " Rock and Roll on the Ocean of Storms " . He is the only artist to use real Moon dust in his paintings . When he began painting , he realized that keepsake patches from his space suit were dirty with Moon dust . He adds tiny pieces of the patches to his paintings , which make them unique . He also uses the hammer used to pound the flagpole into the lunar surface , and a bronzed Moon boot , to texture his paintings . Personal life . He is married and has two grown children , a son and a daughter . Bean took a little piece of MacBean tartan to the Moon . Books . Bean ' s in - flight Skylab diary is featured in " Homesteading Space , " a history of the Skylab program co - authored by fellow astronauts Joseph Kerwin and Owen Garriott and writer David Hitt , published in 2008 .