RIP Alan Bean, Apollo astronaut, artist, and UT alum

[Art Vandelay 1712]

UT class of 1955. Hook'em and RIP \m/

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/26/514228407/alan-bean-apollo-astronaut-who-walked-on-the-moon-has-died-at-86

One of the U.S. astronauts who walked on the moon has died. Alan Bean died on Saturday in Houston after a short illness. He was 86.

With Bean's death, only four moonwalkers are still alive (Buzz Aldrin, Dave Scott, Charlie Duke and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt).

Bean was the lunar module pilot of Apollo 12, which made the second lunar landing in 1969. He flew in space one more time, but he really made his mark in what he did after NASA.

Bean spent 31 hours on the moon, collecting lunar samples and deploying several experiments with mission commander Pete Conrad. They also checked up on Surveyor 3, which had landed two years earlier.

Enlarge this image

Astronaut Alan Bean during the Apollo 12 spacewalk on the moon's surface. Commander Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr., who took the photo, is reflected in Bean's helmet visor.

Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr./NASA

They were busy but, as Bean recalled during a 2016 NPR interview, "as I ran along, I remember ... saying to myself, 'You know, this is really the moon. We're really here. ... That's the Earth up there.' And I said it two or three times to myself."

After Apollo, Bean commanded the second Skylab mission in 1973 — orbiting the Earth for 59 days. Later, he was in line to fly the first shuttle flights. But he gave it up because "the more I thought about it the more I realized there were young men and women at NASA in the astronaut office that could fly the shuttle as good as I could or better, but I was the only one interested in trying to do this other job."

That other job was to paint. So he left NASA. He had an engineering background and was a test pilot in the Navy, but took art lessons at night and it was something he always wanted to do full-time. For more than four decades after his space career, he chronicled the six missions that landed on the moon. He said, "I feel blessed every day when I'm working on these paintings ... the first artist to ever go to another world and try to tell stories that people care about."

In painstaking detail, he recreated what it was like to be on the moon, using actual moon dust and ground-up remnants of Apollo spacecraft. Before starting each painting, he'd spend weeks studying photographs and videos, and calling fellow astronauts to probe their memories.

Those materials and memories are what Bean brought back from the moon, but he also left something behind — his silver astronaut lapel pin. He had thrown it as far as he could into a crater.

He said he thought about it often, "and when I look at the moon at night, think about that pin up there, just as shiny as it ever was, and someday maybe somebody will go pick it up."

[NeverMarryAStripper 21943]

I guess his paintings just went up in value. Pretty soon they’ll all be gone and it will be late me it never happened.

[RPM 26360]

He was a really cool guy. The Apollo 12 episode of From the Earth to the Moon is told from his perspective. He was a steely eyed missile man. RIP

[DaysOff 7976]

Signed the same parchment as him for ASE honors society. Does that leave four moonwalkers?

[austingirl 2192]

I was really sad to hear this. I met him back in the early aughts when I did PR for the UT College of Engineering. He was an advisory council member and I schmoozed with him and some of the other members (as an aside, Rex Tillerson was one, too) and we talked about his life at NASA, but honestly, more about his painting. He was such a great guy. The CoE has some amazing alumni.

[NameAlreadyInUse 5129]

RIP. I was going to bring up the same thing as RPM. That was a great series and his was a great episode. 

[Hagbard Celine 10936]

His take on the UAP and alien questions, in direct contravention to the Fermi Paradox, was rare from someone with the street cred to discuss the topics.  Most takes from those who were on the inside have either been silent or quiet acknowledgement.

Regardless of his takes, his art kicks ass, and he was a Horn, and a Steely-Eyed Missile-Man.

Light the Tower.

[Hagbard Celine 10936]

someone in austin please get some tower pics tonight and post

thank you

[LongestHorn 759]

RIP moon walker

[McCroskey 1497]

How he said it made it even better but I loved his quote from the series "When We Left Earth:"

"You know, when you're an astronaut, you've got to buy into a lot of risk.  Nobody's gonna save you if the hardware doesn't work.  You buy into that stuff if you're gonna be an astronaut.  If you can't buy into it...don't be an astronaut." 

 

RIP.

[MrPhlegm 3413]

RIP 

[austingirl 2192]

"Try SCE to AUX."

Really great writeup of that story here.

[1978horn 896]

He lived next door to my grandmother for years in the Memorial area. Met him lots of times as a young kid. Still have one of his painting prints with a personalized autograph on it. RIP Alan Bean

[jofus 2266]

This one hits close to home. He and my grandad were best friends going back to their days at UT. I’ll never forget how Alan came to sit by my grandad’s side shortly before my grandad’s passing. 

RIP

[NeverMarryAStripper 21943]

All of those guys were my heroes growing up, and truly represented the best of America. It will be a sad day when the last one passes and NASA still doesn’t have the capability of putting a man in space.

Edited May 27, 2018 by NeverMarryAStripper