Back to the Real Salt Lake Newsfeed

Alan Bean, Apollo 12 astronaut who walked on the moon, dies at 86

Alan Bean, a NASA astronaut who journeyed into space two times and, as part of the Apollo 12 mission in 1969, became the fourth man to walk on the moon, died May 26 at a hospital in Houston. He was 86.

Bean was a Navy test pilot who joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 1963. He made his first voyage into space on Nov. 14, 1969, four months after the historic first landing on the moon of Apollo 11, commanded by Neil Armstrong.

The three astronauts aboard Apollo 12 were Charles “Pete” Conrad Jr., the mission commander, Richard Gordon Jr.