Alan Bean, Fourth Man to Walk on the Moon, Dies at 86

Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon and an accomplished artist, died Saturday at age 86.

According to a statement from NASA, Bean died at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas after suddenly falling ill while in Fort Wayne, Indiana two weeks ago.

"Alan was the strongest and kindest man I ever knew. He was the love of my life and I miss him dearly," Bean's widow, Leslie Bean, said in a statement. "A native Texan, Alan died peacefully in Houston surrounded by those who loved him."

Bean was born on March 15, 1932 in Wheeler, Texas. After earning a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Texas Austin, he served in the U.S. Naval Reserve. In 1963, he was selected to join NASA's third group of astronauts.

In November 1969, he was the lunar module pilot on Apollo 12, the second Apollo mission to successfully land on the moon. He went into space a second time in July 1973, as the commander of the second crewed flight to Skylab, the U.S.' first space station.

During the Apollo 12 mission, Bean walked on the moon alongside Charles "Pete" Conrad, who died in July 1999 at age 69.

In total, Bean spent 69 days, 15 hours and 45 minutes in space, including 31 hours and 31 minutes on the moon.

Bean retired from the Navy in 1975 and from NASA six years later. Since then, he became a successful painter, turning his experiences with NASA into works of art. Some of his pieces even integrated moon dust, lunar boot prints and his mission patches.

"Alan Bean was the most extraordinary person I ever met," astronaut Mike Massimino told NASA. "He was a one of a kind combination of technical achievement as an astronaut and artistic achievement as a painter."

Massimino continued, "But what was truly extraordinary was his deep caring for others and his willingness to inspire and teach by sharing his personal journey so openly. Anyone who had the opportunity to know Alan was a better person for it, and we were better astronauts by following his example. I am so grateful he was my mentor and friend, and I will miss him terribly. He was a great man and this is a great loss."

Bean is survived by his wife Leslie; two children from a previous marriage, Amy Sue and Clay; and sister Paula Scott.

"I would say I had zero philosophical thoughts at that time," Bean told NPR of his time on the moon in 2014. "I was operating on a timed checklist that we've been trained to do, to try to maximize every really minute on the moon. [There's] no telling what that costs per minute to be on the moon — millions and millions of dollars — so you wanted to make every one of 'em productive."

Photo credit: NASA