Alan LaVern Bean (1932-2018)

[Orionid]

https://twitter.com/Astro_Feustel/status/1000522264763355136

A.J. (Drew) Feustel@Astro_Feustel 26 maj 2018

Today we honor and remember a fallen colleague and hero who helped advance the human species out into space. Alan Bean inspired us all to be better, to be humble, and to strive to share the story of exploration and give our lives meaning. Rest In Peace Alan. Ad Astra.

[Orionid]

Alan Bean, moonwalker turned artist, dies at 86
May 26, 2018 William Harwood


Former astronaut Alan Bean in his Houston art studio. Credit: Smithsonian Institution

Alan Bean, a Navy test pilot and astronaut who walked on the moon and then spent two months aboard America’s first space station before leaving NASA and becoming an accomplished artist, painting moonscapes and space vistas that garnered widespread critical praise, died Saturday. He was 86.

NASA confirmed Bean’s death in a statement from his family, saying the former astronaut died at Houston Methodist Hospital after a short illness.

“Alan was the strongest and kindest man I ever knew,” his wife, Leslie Bean, said in the NASA statement. “He was the love of my life and I miss him dearly. … Alan died peacefully in Houston surrounded by those who loved him.”

Bean was one of only 12 men to walk on the moon, two in each of six successful lunar landing missions. He is survived by just four moonwalkers: Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot of Apollo 11, Dave Scott, commander of Apollo 15, Charlie Duke, lunar module pilot for Apollo 16, and geologist and former U.S. Sen. Harrison Schmitt, lunar module pilot for Apollo 17, the final Apollo moon mission.

“I was fortunate to be the first artist with the opportunity to be in the center of the action to capture what I saw and felt, and bring it back to Earth to share with generations to come,” Bean wrote on his website.

“It is my dream that on the wings of my paintbrush many people will see what I saw and feel what I felt, walking on another world some 240,000 miles from my studio here on planet Earth. I believe my paintings are beautiful and important art. It is art not of the distant past, but art of our time. Art we can understand, important art to us and our descendants because we were there as history was made.”

Andrew Chaikin, author of “A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts,” said Bean was unique among NASA’s cadre of astronauts, an accomplished test pilot who also had the talent — and confidence — to step away from the apex of an extremely successful technical career to pursue his art with the same single-minded devotion that took him to the moon.

“He was very passionate about his art, he devoted the entire post-NASA part of his life to painting and to recording the Apollo missions as an artist,” Chaikin said. “He was very successful. People paid tens of thousands of dollars for his paintings.”

Bean also was singularly focused, turning out paintings on commission that were striking in their use of bold colors — the red, white and blue of the American flag, for example — set against the stark black-and-white environment of the moon.

Fans paid handsomely for that vision. Bean’s website recently listed paintings with price tags that ranged up to a half-million dollars.

“What one must understand about Alan Bean is he is the only artist to have ever walked on the moon,” Tom Hanks wrote on Bean’s website. “No poet has ever been to the lunar surface, nor any journalist, architect nor songwriter. In the realm of the arts, it has fallen upon Alan Bean to be the one moonwalker to turn hard data brought back from the moon into something other than numbered photographs.

“The images that Al has committed to canvas, then, are important, inspiring and priceless works of art. Not only has he painted the moon, he’s been there.”


Alan Bean, Apollo 12 lunar module pilot and Skylab commander. Credit: NASA

Chaikin said the key to Bean’s success, on Earth and off, was his focus and intensity.

“The thing you have to know about Alan is my God, he was single minded,” Chaikin said. “He was the most single-minded, diligent guy I can think of. He just got up in the morning with his objective and he just didn’t let go of it until it was accomplished. And that included teaching himself to be a better artist. He was absolutely relentless in his pursuit of becoming a better artist.”

In a 1989 interview before the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Bean recalled struggling to understand how Monet, one of his favorite artists, had captured the subtle lighting in a painting of a cathedral. So Bean flew to Europe, visited the church and spent days, from dawn to dusk, watching how light played across the structure.

“Alan wanted to understand what Monet actually saw versus what he painted,” Chaikin said, recalling the story. “He went to the place and sat there at different times of day. That’s classic Alan. He was a perfectionist.”

Schmitt recalled phone calls from Bean “to ask about some detail about lunar soil, color or equipment he wanted to have represented exactly in a painting. Other times, he wanted to discuss items in the description he was writing to go with a painting.”

“His enthusiasm about space and art never waned,” Schmitt said in the NASA statement. “Alan Bean (was) one of the great renaissance men of his generation — engineer, fighter pilot, astronaut and artist,

Born in Wheeler, Texas, on March 15, 1932, Bean earned a degree in aeronautical engineering before joining the Navy and eventually winning a coveted assignment to the Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Md.

In 1963, he was selected in NASA’s third group of astronauts, along with Apollo 11 crew members  Aldrin and Mike Collins, Scott and Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan, the 12th and last man to walk on the moon.

After serving in backup roles for the Gemini 10 and Apollo 9 missions, Bean was named lunar module pilot for Apollo 12, the second moon landing mission. Perched atop a gargantuan Saturn 5 rocket, Bean and his crewmates — commander Pete Conrad and Richard Gordon — blasted off on Nov. 14, 1969.

The rocket was launched in dismal weather and 36 seconds after liftoff, a lightning bolt hit the Saturn 5 followed 16 seconds later by a second strike, wreaking havoc with the on-board electronics. To call it a frightening moment would be an understatement.

“What the hell was that?” Gordon asked as caution lights flared in the cockpit. “I lost a whole bunch of stuff. I don’t know…”

Moments later, Conrad radioed mission control in Houston, saying “we just lost the (guidance) platform, gang. I don’t know what happened here, we had everything in the world drop out.”

But the Saturn 5 was healthy and an alert flight controller, recalling a similar electrical glitch during training, had the crew change a switch setting in the cockpit and the displays returned to normal.


Astronaut Alan Bean, Apollo 12 lunar module pilot, pauses near a tool carrier during the Apollo 12 spacewalk on the moon’s surface. Commander Pete Conrad, who took the black-and-white photo, is reflected in Bean’s helmet visor. Credit: NASA

Even without getting hit by lightning, Bean’s first ride aboard a rocket left a lasting impression.

“The noise and the vibration during the launch was so much greater than I anticipated,” he said. “I’d flown a lot of different kinds of airplanes as a test pilot. When that Saturn 5 started rumbling and kicking around, it was so much more than I ever imagined that I thought something was wrong.

“As it turned out, nothing was wrong. I remember it just as a 10-minute ride on something that was so much more powerful and so much more energetic and had so much more potential than I thought anything had that I was just kind of overwhelmed.”

Likewise, the view from orbit.

“The whole thing about the lunar trip was every part of it was more amazing and more science fiction than I imagined it to be,” he said. “The view of the Earth looking back from space, I knew what it was going to look like. But when I actually got there and looked back and saw it sitting out there and realized that everybody but the three of us was down there, it just seemed impossible. It just seemed too amazing to be true. The whole mission went that way.”

Four days after launch, Conrad and Bean left Gordon behind in orbit and landed the lunar module Intrepid near the lip of a crater in the Ocean of Storms.

The goal was to demonstrate a precision landing and the crew did just that, setting down within sight of a robotic Surveyor spacecraft that landed earlier inside the crater. Conrad later snapped a famous photo of Bean standing by the Surveyor spacecraft with Intrepid in the background on the rim of the depression.

The crew hoped to send down the first live color television from the surface during their two moonwalks, but Bean inadvertently pointed the camera at the sun, knocking it out of action.

“He never kind of got over that,” Chaikin said. “He was always sorry that he did that.”

But Bean’s memories of the surface remained sharp in his mind, with all the clarity that later would be reflected in his paintings. In one of those, titled “Heavenly Reflections,” Bean shows himself standing on the moon, his hand on Conrad’s shoulder as they both look back on Earth, which is reflected in their helmets.

“As I touched Pete’s shoulder I thought, can all the people we know, all the people we love, who we’ve seen on TV, or read about in the newspapers, all be up there on that tiny blue and white marble?” Bean wrote of the painting.

“Earth is small but so lovely. It is easily the most beautiful object we could see from the Moon. It was a wondrous moment. If there is a God in heaven, this must be what he sees as he looks toward his children on the good Earth.”

Bean and Conrad spent seven hours and 45 minutes walking on the moon during two excursions, collecting about 75 pounds of lunar rocks and soil, along with components from the Surveyor lander. They blasted off on Nov. 20, one day after landing, rejoining Gordon aboard the command module Yankee Clipper for the trip back to Earth.

“Our ascent (from the surface) was like six minutes and three seconds,” Bean said. “I can remember thinking, I hope this engine runs for six minutes and three seconds! You didn’t have much instrumentation on it because there was nothing you could do about it if it didn’t. … Your life’s on the line. If it doesn’t work, you’re cooked.”

But it did work, and the Apollo 12 crew safely returned to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on Nov. 24, 1969.

NASA would launch another five Apollo missions, but Bean never got another chance to visit the moon. But he did get a chance to return to space, serving as commander of the second three-man Skylab space station crew in 1973, logging a then-record 59 days in orbit. His final flight assignment at NASA was backup commander of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975.

Bean retired from the Navy that same year but continued to serve as head of the Astronaut Candidate Operations and Training Group at the Johnson Space Center Houston before retiring from NASA in 1981 to pursue his painting career full time.

“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,” NASA said in a 1993 biography. “He hopes to express these experiences through the medium of art. He is pursuing this dream at his home and studio in Houston.”

Bean logged 1,671 hours and 45 minutes in space, including 10 hours and 26 minutes spacewalking on the moon or in Earth orbit. He logged more than 7,145 hours flying time in a variety of aircraft, including 4,850 hours in jets.

“I became an astronaut because they were flying higher and faster and further than anything else,” Bean said. “So I didn’t do it to be an explorer. I did it to be a pilot and do these amazing flying things.”

He is survived by his wife Leslie, his sister Paula Stott, and two children from an earlier marriage, Amy and Clay.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/05/26/alan-bean-moonwalker-turned-artist-dies-at-86/

[Orionid]

Astronauts in space, on Earth mourn loss of Apollo moonwalker Alan Bean


As Apollo 12 lunar module pilot, Alan Bean became the fourth man to walk on the moon in November 1969. (NASA)

May 28, 2018 – The death of Apollo moonwalker and artist Alan Bean elicited tributes by his fellow astronauts, on and off the planet.

Bean, who died on Saturday (May 26) at age 86, was the fourth NASA astronaut to walk on the moon, the second to command the first U.S. space station, and the only artist to document his firsthand experiences visiting another world.

"We honor and remember a fallen colleague and hero who helped advance the human species out into space," wrote Expedition 54 flight engineer Drew Feustel from on board the International Space Station. "Alan Bean inspired us all to be better, to be humble, and to strive to share the story of exploration and give our lives meaning."

"Rest In Peace Alan. Ad Astra," Feustel said on Twitter.

Bean was selected with NASA's third group of astronauts. The 1963 class included Bean's future Apollo 12 crewmate Richard Gordon, who preceded him in death in 2017; Buzz Aldrin, who preceded Bean to the moon on Apollo 11; and Walt Cunningham, who preceded Bean to space as a crew member on Apollo 7.

"Alan and I have been best friends for 55 years, ever since the day we became astronauts," said Cunningham, adding his comments to a statement released by Bean's family.

As the head of the Skylab branch for the Astronaut Office, Cunningham worked with Bean, who flew as commmander of the second crewed flight to the orbital workshop.

"We've never lived more than a couple of miles apart, even after we left NASA. And for years, Alan and I never missed a month where we did not have a cheeseburger together," Cunningham said. "We are accustomed to losing friends in our business, but this is a tough one."

Bean was the last living member of the Apollo 12 crew. In addition to Gordon, he was preceded in death by mission commander Pete Conrad in 1999. There are now only four of the twelve Apollo moonwalkers still alive.

"My first close contact with Alan Bean began in August of 1969 with his last four months of preparation as the lunar module pilot for Apollo 12," said Harrison Schmitt, the first and only geologist to walk on the moon on Apollo 17. "Alan and Pete were extremely engaged in the planning for their exploration of the Surveyor III landing site in the Ocean of Storms [and] this commitment paid off with Alan and Pete's collection of a fantastic suite of lunar samples, a scientific gift that keeps on giving today and in the future."

After returning from the moon and leading the then record-setting 59-day expedition aboard Skylab, Bean left NASA to devote his time to painting what he and his fellow Apollo moonwalkers experienced.

"He'd call me to ask about some detail about the lunar soil, color or equipment he wanted to have represented exactly in a painting," recounted Schmitt. "Other times, he wanted to discuss items in the description that he was writing to go with a painting. His enthusiasm about space and art never waned."

"He was my superhero of spaceflight and art," said Nicole Stott, who followed Bean's example by becoming an artist after spending more than 100 days in space. "Thankful for his mentorship, friendship, and beautiful smile."

Before Bean left NASA, he led the operations and training for the next generation of astronaut candidates. His role in that regard continued beyond his 18 years with the space agency.

"When I was in fourth grade, I wrote a letter to Alan Bean. I was so thrilled when he wrote back! It was a life-changing moment that inspired me to become an astronaut," wrote Andrew Morgan on Twitter. NASA just assigned Morgan to fly to the space station in July 2019.

"America lost another legend," said Bob Hines, a member of NASA's 22nd class of astronaut candidates selected in 2017, in a tweet. "Alan Bean was a great American with an unmatched sense of humor, a desire to share lessons with future generations, and a talented artist to boot!"

"We've all benefitted from his wisdom. He will be missed," wrote Hines.

http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-052818a-alan-bean-remembered-astronauts.html

[Orionid]

Odchodzą weterani pierwszych lotów kosmicznych
BY MICHAŁ MOROZ ON 28 MAJA 2018


Alan Bean oraz Don Peterson / NASA

W odstępstwie jednego dnia zmarło dwóch amerykańskich astronautów, Alan Bean, czwarty człowiek na Księżycu oraz Don Peterson, uczestnik pierwszego lotu Challengera.

Obu astronautów różniło tylko półtora roku. Alan Bean urodził się w marcu 1932 roku, zaś Don Peterson w październiku 1933 roku. Brali jednak udział w całkowicie innych programach lotów załogowych USA.

Alan Bean


Alan Bean na Księżycu / NASA

Bean został przyjęty do trzeciej grupy astronautów NASA w 1963 roku. Brał udział w dwóch lotach kosmicznych, Apollo 12 oraz Skylab SL3. Jako pilot lądownika księżycowego w listopadzie 1969 roku jako czwarty człowiek postawił stopę na Księżycu. Wraz z Pete Conradem wylądowali na Oceanie Burz w pobliżu lądownika Surveyor 3, która osiadła na Księżycu dwa i pół roku wcześniej. Na orbicie Księżyca w kapsule Apollo pozostał zaś Richard Gordan – obecnie ostatni żyjący weteran misji Apollo 12.

Alan Bean wykonał dwa spacery na Księżycu. Prócz skał pobrał również szereg próbek z Surveyora, które następnie zostały przywiezione na Ziemie. Jego pierwszy lot trwał 10 dni. Drugą wyprawą już dowodził. Wraz z Owenem Garriottem oraz Jackiem Lousma spędził wówczas rekordowe 59 dni na pokładzie amerykańskiej stacji kosmicznej Skylab. Podczas misji wykonał również jeden spacer kosmiczny.

Na emeryturze Alan Bean skupił się przede wszystkim działalności artystycznej. Został malarzem przedstawiającym pejzaże z różnymi scenami ukazującymi program Apollo i lądowanie człowieka na Księżycu.

Bean zmarł 26 maja. Z wszystkich dwunastu astronautów, którzy na przełomie lat 60 i 70 stanęli na powierzchni Srebrnego Globu, żyje jeszcze tylko czterech.

Don Peterson


Peterson i Musgrave podczas spaceru kosmicznego / NASA

Don Peterson został przyjęty do korpusu astronautów w 1967 roku. W odróżnieniu od Beana trafił do tajnego wojskowego programu lotów do stacji kosmicznej Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL). Sam program nie został nigdy zrealizowany, a niektórzy biorący w nim udział astronauci zostali później przetransferowani do cywilnej NASA. Na pierwszy lot musieli jednak poczekać do ery wahadłowców.

Swój jedyny lot kosmiczny Peterson odbył w 1983 roku w debiutanckiej misji wahadłowca Challenger. Podczas misji, która wyniosła satelitę telekomunikacyjnego TDRS-A Peterson wraz ze Storym Musgrave’em wziął udział w pierwszym spacerze kosmicznym programu wahadłowców. Testowane były przede wszystkim nowe skafandry kosmiczne. Misja STS-6 trwała pięć dni.

Don Peterson zmarł 27 maja, dzień po Alanie Bean.

(LK)
https://kosmonauta.net/2018/05/odchodza-weterani-pierwszych-lotow-kosmicznych/#prettyPhoto
http://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=3228.msg118845#msg118845

2)
https://twitter.com/ron_eisele/status/1768362368344465914

15 March 1932. Birth of Alan LaVern Bean, NASA astronaut, engineer and artist. Apollo 12 Lunar Module Pilot and Commander of Skylab III.

Today we celebrate astronaut and artist Al Bean, born #OTD in 1932! Bean was one of the 12 men who walked on the Moon, he commanded the Skylab 3 crew 1973, and after retiring from NASA, devoted his time to painting his spaceflight memories. https://go.nasa.gov/3ThPsgb

https://x.com/NASAhistory/status/1768638285230796837
https://twitter.com/airandspace/status/1768779008332767442

Apollo 12 and Skylab 3 astronaut Alan Bean was born #OTD in 1932. A talented artist, he dedicated his later life to the art of painting his memories of Apollo, allowing us to see the Moon through his eyes: http://s.si.edu/3JgZjg3

2)
https://twitter.com/spacemen1969/status/1780274809286365367

[mss]

Parę fotek z Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Boba Cabany z remembrance ceremony dla Alana Beana (30.05.2018):

[mss]

Wspomnienie córki o ojcu z https://moonwalkerdaughter.com/2018/06/03/6-dad-and-do-nuts/

Sunday morning, May 1970, Apollo 12 had flown to the moon and returned to earth 6 months earlier.

Dad bent down to tighten the strap on my helmet. Climbing on the motorcycle, he flipped the choke and turned the key. Our two-wheeled rocket was lit. My arms tight around his waist, he patted them, flipped the kickstand up, and roared down the driveway, breaking the silence of the dawn towards the promise of freshly-fried Shipley Do-nuts.

Texas 3, the highway to League City was a quiet connector in those days. We rumbled past the occasional oil tanker truck as the power plant lights twinkled in the distance. The doorbell, hanging on a string jingled, announced the arrival of the morning’s first customers. The white-aproned donut fryer nodded his head and transferred our hot sugary reward straight into the box. Our pastries securely bungee-corded between us, my father picked up speed and we headed home.

Last year we revived this father-daughter tradition, substituting my father’s white SUV for the maroon motorbike, and air conditioning for the wind in our faces. Gone was the Sunday sunrise where we satisfied our weekly need for speed.  The morning had matured into relaxed moments of Dad and daughter discussing life, love, family, friends, art, and astronaut adventures.

We shared our last father-daughter breakfast together on Sunday, May 6, 2018. The following Thursday, Dad suffered a powerful stroke. He never regained consciousness and died 16 days later. I lost my sage, my loudest cheerleader, the one who confidently told me, “Amy, you will find a way”. 

Our Shipley Do-nut days are a memory now. That time, those conversations, like the cinnamon buns we relished, were sweet cakes of love filled with fatherly wisdom. And although I will no longer hear my father’s voice, forever I carry his inspirational song in my heart.

My father achieved his dreams. At 86 years old Alan Bean was at peace with a life well-lived.

[mss]

Fotoreportaż z pochówku A. Bean na cmentarzu Arlington w czwartek 08.11:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/sets/72157697518785370/

Obecni byli byli astronauci NASA: Fred Haise, Charlie Duke, Bill Anders, Rusty Schweickart, Walt Cunningham, Harrison Schmitt, Jack Lousma, Mike Massimino, Dave Scott i Vance Brand.

[ekoplaneta]

Fotoreportaż z pochówku A. Bean na cmentarzu Arlington w czwartek 08.11:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/sets/72157697518785370/

Obecni byli byli astronauci NASA: Fred Haise, Charlie Duke, Bill Anders, Rusty Schweickart, Walt Cunningham, Harrison Schmitt, Jack Lousma, Mike Massimino, Dave Scott i Vance Brand.

Alan Bean zmarł w maju i dopiero w listopadzie miał pogrzeb? Czemu tak długo musiało to wszystko trwać?

[mss]

Wszelkie procedury i kolejka...

więcej: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/14/families-wait-months-to-bury-loved-ones-at-arlington/15607321/

[Orionid]

5 lat mija od śmierci astronauty

26 mai 2018
Il y a 5 ans, Alan Bean, 4ème homme à marcher sur la Lune (Apollo 12 en novembre 1969), nous quittait à 86 ans.
https://spacemen1969.blogspot.com/2018/05/disparition-de-lastronaute-alan-bean.html

Kod: [Zaznacz]

https://twitter.com/spacemen1969/status/1662124579236503552