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Heather with
Captain Alan Bean
The 4th man
to walk on the moon
Captain 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.
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