Portrait of Astronaut Alan L. Bean
Biographical data from
the Astronaut
Fact Book (Adobe Acrobat format):
BEAN, ALAN L.
Captain, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Born March 15, 1932, in Wheeler, Texas.
Bachelor of science in aeronautical engineering from University of
Texas.
Flew on Apollo 12 and Skylab 3.
Cumulative hours of space flight are more than 1671.
Cumulative EVA time is more than 10 hours.
Apollo 12 Struck by Lightning
Apollo 12 was struck by lightning 36 seconds after liftoff. All
communication was drowned out by static for 26 seconds. The telemetry
that Mission Control then received was garbled and astronaut Pete
Conrad reported many problems. Flight director Gerald Griffin was
ready to abort the mission. John Aaron, the flight controller in
charge of the Command and Service Module electrical system (EECOM),
had looked into similar trouble with the telemetry that occurred in a
test about a year earlier so he understood the problem. Griffin
looked to Aaron expecting him to recommend aborting the mission but
Aaron said, "Flight, EECOM. Try SCE to Aux." Griffin did not
understand this but trusted Aaron so he asked Capcom Jerry Carr to
relay the message to the astronauts. Carr did not know about this
obscure switch but, trusting the flight controllers, he relayed the
message. Alan Bean knew about the Signal Condition Equipment
switch and moved it to the auxiliary position. Good telemetry was
immediately restored. The astronauts reset some other things and
Apollo 12 went on to the moon!
Read more about this in the book, "Apollo, the Race to the Moon" by
Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox or read about
it
here.
Apollo 12 Achieves a Pinpoint Landing
Until the mission of Apollo 12, no one knew how to land at a precise
location on the moon. (Apollo 11 landed more than four miles off
target.) The story of how this problem was solved is told in the
book, "Apollo, the Race to the Moon" by Charles Murray and Catherine
Bly Cox. Apollo 12's target was next to the Surveyor 3, an unmanned
probe that had soft-landed on the moon three years earlier. Alan
Bean and Pete Conrad brought back the television camera from
Surveyor 3. This camera is now on display at the Air and Space Museum
in Washington DC (look for "The Tools of Planetary Exploration" in
the exhibit "Exploring the Planets").
Views of
the Solar System has a history section with a great account of
Apollo
12.
The Apollo Lunar
Surface Journal has an in depth section
on Apollo
12.
See a incredible image of astronaut
Alan Bean retrieving the Surveyor 3 camera on the moon.
(Note the lunar module in the background.)
Here are
many Apollo 12 pictures.
The Apollo 12 spacecraft may be seen at the Virginia Air and Space
Center (NASA Langley visitor's center), Hampton, VA.
Alan Bean spent 59 days, 11 hours in space during his mission on
Skylab 3.
Andrew Chaikin, in his book "A Man on the Moon", wrote that Alan Bean's
Skylab crew (the second crew) was so productive "that it was only
halfway through the next Skylab mission that mission control stopped
thinking there was something wrong with the third crew, whose
performance was closer to normal."
Here is a
Skylab 3 web site.
See a view of
the
Skylab space station cluster.
See a view of
the
Skylab space station cluster as seen by the crew of Skylab 4.
Astronaut
Alan Bean shaves while aboard Skylab.
Astronaut Owen Garriott trims hair of
astronaut
Alan Bean while aboard Skylab.
Astronaut
Alan Bean doing acrobatics in the Skylab Orbital Workshop dome
area.
Skylab 2 astronaut Charles Conrad undergoing
a
dental examination by the Medical Officer, astronaut Joseph
Kerwin in the Skylab Medical Facility.
Here are
many Skylab 3 pictures.
The Skylab 3 spacecraft may be seen at the NASA Lewis Research
Center, Cleveland, OH.
(email:
Jeff Stetekluh)
