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Pete Conrad
NASA Astronaut
Nationality	American
Status	Deceased
Born	(1930-06-02)June 2, 1930 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	July 8, 1999(1999-07-08) (aged 69) Ojai, California, U.S.
Other occupation	Test Pilot
Rank	Captain, USN
Time in space	49d 03h 38 m
Selection	1962 NASA Group
Missions	Gemini 5, Gemini 11, Apollo 12, Skylab 2
Mission insignia
Awards

Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr. (June 2, 1930 – July 8, 1999) was an American engineer, U.S. Navy officer and NASA astronaut, and the third person to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 12 mission. He set an eight-day space endurance record along with command pilot Gordon Cooper on the Gemini 5 mission, and commanded the Gemini 11 mission. After Apollo, he commanded the Skylab 2 mission, on which he and his crew repaired significant launch damage to the Skylab space station. For this, President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978.

Early life and Navy career[link]

Pete Conrad was born on June 2, 1930, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the third child and first son of Charles Conrad, Sr. and Frances De Rappelage Conrad (née Vinson), a well-to-do real estate and banking family. His mother wanted very much to name her newborn son “Peter”, but Charles insisted that his first son bear his name. In a compromise between two iron wills, the name on his birth certificate would read “Charles Conrad, Jr.” but to his mother and virtually all who knew him, he was “Peter”. When he was 21, his fiancée’s father called him “Pete” and thereafter, Conrad adopted it. For the rest of his life, to virtually everyone, he was “Pete”.^[1]

The Great Depression had wiped out the Conrad family’s fortune as it had that of so many others. In 1942, they lost their Philadelphia manor home and moved into a small carriage house, paid for by Frances’s brother, Egerton Vinson. Eventually, Charles, Sr., broken by financial failure, left his family.^[2]

From the beginning, Conrad was clearly a bright, intelligent child, but he continually struggled with his school work. He suffered from dyslexia, a condition which was little understood at the time. Conrad attended The Haverford School, a private academy in Haverford, Pennsylvania where previous generations of Conrads had attended. Even after his family’s financial downturn, his uncle Egerton supported his continued attendance at Haverford. However, Conrad’s dyslexia continued to frustrate his academic efforts. After he failed most of his 11th grade exams, Haverford expelled him.^[3]

Conrad’s mother refused to believe her son was unintelligent, and set about finding him a suitable school. She found the Darrow School in New Lebanon, New York. There, Conrad learned how to apply a systems approach to learning, and thus, found a way to work around his dyslexia. Despite having to repeat the 11th grade, Conrad so excelled at Darrow that after his graduation in 1949, he not only was admitted to Princeton University, but he was also awarded a full Navy ROTC scholarship in the bargain.^[4]

Starting when he was fifteen, Conrad worked summers at Paoli Airfield near Philadelphia, exchanging lawn mowing, sweeping, and other odd jobs for airplane rides and occasional stick-time. As he grew, and learned more about the mechanics and workings of aircraft and their engines, he graduated to minor repairs and maintenance. When he was 16, he drove almost 100 miles (160 km) to assist a flight instructor whose plane had been forced to make an emergency landing due to a throttle malfunction. Conrad repaired the plane single-handedly. Thereafter, the instructor gave Conrad the formal lessons he needed to earn his pilot’s license even before he graduated from high school.^[5]

Conrad continued flying while in college, not only maintaining his pilot’s license, but earning an instrument rating as well. He earned his bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Princeton University in 1953, after which he entered the United States Navy. [R 83] Conrad excelled in Navy flight school, and became a carrier pilot, known by the call sign “Squarewave”. Later, he became a flight instructor and a test pilot at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland.^[6]

Conrad was invited to participate in the selection process for what would become the first group of NASA astronauts (the “Mercury Seven”). Conrad, like his fellow candidates, underwent several days of what he considered to be invasive, demeaning, and unnecessary medical and psychological testing at the Lovelace Clinic in New Mexico. Unlike his fellow candidates, however, Conrad rebelled against the regimen. During a Rorschach inkblot test, he told the psychiatrist that one blot card revealed a sexual encounter complete with lurid detail. When shown the next card, he studied it for a moment then said with a deadpan face, “It’s upside down.” When he was asked to deliver a stool sample to the on-site lab, he placed it in a gift box and tied a red ribbon around it. Eventually, he decided he'd had enough. After dropping his full enema bag on the desk of the Clinic’s commanding officer he walked out.^[7] His initial NASA application was denied with the notation not suitable for long-duration flight.^[8]

Thereafter, when NASA announced its search for a second group of astronauts, Alan Shepard, who knew Conrad from their time as Naval Aviators and test pilots, approached Conrad and persuaded him to re-apply. This time, the medical tests were less offensive and Conrad was invited to join NASA.

NASA career[link]

Gemini[link]

Conrad preparing for water egress training in the Gemini Static Article 5 spacecraft.

Conrad joined NASA as part of the second group of astronauts, known as the New Nine, on September 17, 1962. Regarded as one of the best pilots in the group, he was among the first of his group to be assigned a Gemini mission. As pilot of Gemini 5 he, along with his commander Gordon Cooper, set a new space endurance record of eight days. The duration of the Gemini 5 flight was actually 7 days 22 hours and 55 minutes, surpassing the then-current Russian record of five days. Eight days was the time required for the first manned lunar landing missions. Conrad facetiously referred to the Gemini 5 capsule as a flying garbage can.

Conrad tested many spacecraft systems essential to the Apollo program. Conrad was also one of the smallest of the astronauts in height, 1.69 metres or 5 feet 6½ inches,^[9] so he found the confinement of the Gemini capsule less onerous than his commander, Gordon Cooper who played American football, did. He was then named commander of the Gemini 8 back-up crew, and later commander of Gemini 11, which docked with an Agena target module immediately after achieving orbit. Such a maneuver was an engineering and flight test because it was very similar to what the Apollo Command Module (CM) and what was referred to at that time as the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) would later be required to do. Later, NASA would change the name of the Lunar Excursion Module to simply Lunar Module or LM, because NASA leadership wanted to acquire funding to engineer a battery powered cart that would eventually be referred to as the Lunar Rover.

Apollo[link]

Conrad descends the lunar module ladder, moments before becoming the third human to walk on the Moon.

In the aftermath of the January 1967 Apollo 1 disaster, NASA’s plan to incrementally test Saturn V and Apollo spacecraft components leading to the lunar landing had to be significantly revised in order to meet John F. Kennedy’s goal of reaching the Moon by the end of the decade. Initially, Conrad was assigned to command the back-up crew for the first flight of the Saturn V and complete Apollo spacecraft, including the Lunar Module (LM) into low Earth orbit, which was initially scheduled as Apollo 8. But when the LM wasn't ready in time, a lunar orbit mission without the LM was approved and inserted into the schedule as Apollo 8, and the mission backed up by Conrad subsequently became Apollo 9. Deke Slayton’s practice in assigning crews was to assign a back-up crew as prime crew for the third mission after that crew’s back-up mission. Without the 8-9 swap, Conrad might have commanded Apollo 11, which became the first mission to land on the Moon.^[10]

On November 14, 1969, Apollo 12 launched with Conrad as commander, Dick Gordon as Command Module Pilot and Alan Bean as Lunar Module Pilot. The launch was the most harrowing of the Apollo program, as a series of lightning strikes just after liftoff temporarily knocked out power and guidance in the command module. Five days later, after stepping onto the lunar surface, Conrad joked about his own small stature by remarking:

He later revealed that he said this in order to win a bet he had made with the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci for $500 to prove that NASA did not script astronaut comments.^[11] (In actuality, Conrad's "long one" and Armstrong's "small step" refer to two different actions: going from the ladder down to the landing pad, then stepping horizontally off the pad onto the lunar surface. Conrad's words for stepping onto the Moon were "Oooh, is that soft and queasy."^[12])

Skylab[link]

Conrad undergoes dental exam by Skylab 2 Science Pilot, Dr. Joseph P. Kerwin, MD.

Conrad's last mission was as commander of Skylab 2, the first crew to board the Skylab space station. The station had been damaged on its unmanned launch, when its micrometeoroid shield tore away, taking one of two main solar panels with it and jamming the other one so that it could not deploy. Conrad and his crew repaired the damage on two spacewalks. Conrad managed to pull free the stuck solar panel by sheer brute force, an action of which he was particularly proud. The astronauts also erected a "parasol" solar shield to protect the station from intense solar heating, a function which the lost micrometeoroid shield was supposed to perform. Without the shield, Skylab and its contents would have become unusable.^[13] President Jimmy Carter honored Conrad for this in 1978 by awarding him the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Post-NASA[link]

Conrad retired from NASA and the Navy in 1973, and went to work for American Television and Communications Company. He worked for McDonnell Douglas from 1976 into the 1990s. After an engine fell off a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 causing it to crash with the loss of all passengers and crew in 1979, Conrad spearheaded McDonnell-Douglas’s ultimately unsuccessful efforts to allay the fears of the public and policymakers, and save the plane’s reputation.

During the 1990s he was the ground-based pilot for several test flights of the Delta Clipper experimental single stage to orbit launch vehicle.

On February 14, 1996, Conrad was part of the crew on a record-breaking around-the-world flight in a Learjet owned by cable TV pioneer, Bill Daniels. The flight lasted 49 hours, 26 minutes and 8 seconds. Today the jet is on permanent static display at Denver International Airport's Terminal C.

In 2006, NASA posthumously awarded him the Ambassador of Exploration Award for his work for the agency and science.

Personal life[link]

While at Princeton, Conrad met Jane DuBose, a student at Bryn Mawr, whose family owned a 1,600-acre (6.5 km²) ranch near Uvalde, Texas. Her father, Winn DuBose, was the first person to call Conrad “Pete” rather than “Peter,” the name he had used since birth. Upon his graduation from Princeton and acceptance of his Navy commission, Conrad and Jane were married on June 16, 1953. They had four children, all sons: Peter, born in 1954, Thomas, Andrew, and the youngest, Christopher, born in 1961.^[6]

Given the demands of his career in the Navy and NASA, Pete and Jane spent a great deal of time apart, and Pete saw less of his boys growing up than he would have liked. Even after he retired from NASA and the Navy, he kept himself busy. Soon, Jane had established a separate life for herself. In 1988, with their sons all grown and moved out, Pete and Jane divorced. Some years later, Jane remarried.

In 1989, Conrad’s youngest son, Christopher, was stricken with a malignant lymphoma. He died in April 1990, at the age of 28.^[14]

Conrad met Nancy Crane, a Denver divorcee, through mutual friends. Conrad and Crane married in 1990.^[15]

Death[link]

On July 8, 1999, less than three weeks before the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the first moon landing, while motorcycling in Ojai, California, with friends, he ran off the road and crashed. His injuries were first thought to be minor, but he died from internal bleeding about six hours later. He was buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery, with many Apollo-era astronauts in attendance.

Honours and awards[link]

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the Polish Wikipedia.

• Congressional Space Medal of Honor (1978)
• Two NASA Distinguished Service Medals
• Two NASA Exceptional Service Medals
• Two Navy Distinguished Service Medals
• Two Distinguished Flying Crosses
• Navy Astronaut Wings
• Gagarin Gold Space Medal (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale)
• De la Vaulx Medal for flight in Apollo 12 (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, 1970)
• Gold Medal and the De La Vaulx Medal for the Skylab flight SL 2 (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, 1974)
• Aviation Hall of Fame (1980)

Popular culture[link]

Conrad is a central figure in the book The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. Much of the book's insight into the attitudes and behavior of both the astronauts and their wives before and during the astronaut selection process are presented through the eyes of Conrad and his wife. In the movie, much of this was shifted to Alan Shepard and the other Mercury astronauts.

In television and film[link]

Conrad played himself in the 1991 television movie Plymouth, about a fictional lunar base; and in the 1975 made-for-TV movie, Stowaway to the Moon.

In the 1995 film Apollo 13, Conrad was played by David Andrews. In the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, he was played by Peter Scolari (in episode 1, "Can We Do This?") and by Paul McCrane (in episode 7, "That's All There Is").

Quotes[link]

If you can’t be good, be colorful.—Conrad's personal motto.

A month before he died, Conrad appeared on ABC News Nightline and said, I think the Space Shuttle is worth one billion dollars a launch. I think that it is worth two billion dollars for what it does. I think the Shuttle is worth it for the work it does.

If you don't know what to do, don't do anything.—Conrad's advice for working in space, quoted in the book From the Earth to the Moon.

Tribute[link]

The Johnson Space Center facility in Houston, Texas, includes a grove of trees planted to honor the memory of astronauts who have died. After Conrad’s death, NASA planted a tree in his honor. During the dedication ceremony, Apollo 12 crewmate Alan Bean, during his speech, irreverently “channeled” Conrad, who purportedly sent instructions from the great beyond. According to Bean, Conrad’s instructions were that NASA light the trees every Christmas season with white lights—but that in keeping with his motto, his tree was to have colored lights. NASA has honored this “request,” and every Christmas since, all the trees in the grove are lit with white lights—except his tree, which is lit with red lights.^[16]

Pete Conrad Spirit Award[link]

On September 8, 2008, The Conrad Foundation announced the launch of their 2008 Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards. Teams of high school students across the nation are invited to compete in this innovative program. The competition engages high school students in creating commercial products using science and technology.

Students design products in personal space flight, lunar exploration and renewable energy. NASA’s call for a human return to the moon and the increased interest in space transportation are the foundation of this year’s Conrad Award aerospace challenges. In addition, students will answer Al Gore’s energy challenge to America, by using renewable energy to change everyday life.

“This generation like every other generation, has the ability to design its future. Our award provides the resources for them to do so,” said Nancy Conrad, wife of the late Pete Conrad and founder of the Conrad Foundation.

Students create unique products, produce viable business plans, and are given opportunities to bring their ideas to market. This competition provides students with the ability to network with scientists, university professors, world business leaders, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. “Winning is just the beginning,” said Nancy Conrad. “This competition is the pipeline from education to industry. We have not only created a program, we’re driving a movement.”

In May 2007 the X PRIZE Foundation announced the creation of the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award, to be presented to "the high school team that develops the most creative, new space concept to benefit the emerging personal spaceflight industry." The first award was presented at the 2007 Wirefly X PRIZE Cup at the Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, it was presented to two students from Milken Community High School.^[17]

See also[link]

United States Navy portal

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Chaikin, Andrew. A Man On The Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts (Penguin Group New York 1994) ISBN 0-670-81446-6.
• Conrad, Nancy and Klausner, Howard. Rocketman: Astronaut Pete Conrad's Incredible Ride to the Moon and Beyond (NAL 2005).
• Slayton, Donald; Cassutt, Michael. Deke! (Forge, New York 1994) ISBN 0-312-85918-X.

External links[link]

• NASA Bio of Pete Conrad
• Pete Conrad - Spirit of Innovation Award
• Pete Conrad at the Internet Movie Database
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Appearances on C-SPAN 1988
• Works by or about Pete Conrad in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Alan LaVern Bean
NASA Astronaut
Nationality	American
Status	Retired
Born	(1932-03-15) March 15, 1932 (age 80) Wheeler, Texas
Other occupation	Test pilot
Rank	Captain, USN
Time in space	69d 15h 45m
Selection	NASA Astronaut Group 3, 1963
Missions	Apollo 12, Skylab 3
Mission insignia

Alan LaVern Bean (born March 15, 1932) is a former NASA astronaut, engineer, and painter. Bean was selected to become an astronaut by NASA in 1963 as part of Astronaut Group 3. He made his first flight into space aboard Apollo 12, the second manned mission to land on the Moon, at the age of thirty-seven years in November 1969. During this mission, Bean became the fourth human to walk on the Moon. He made his second and final flight into space on the Skylab 3 mission in 1973, the second manned mission to the Skylab space station. After retiring from the United States Navy in 1975 and NASA in 1981, Bean pursued his interest in painting, depicting various space-related scenes and documenting his own experiences in space as well as that of his fellow Apollo Program astronauts.

Early life[link]

Bean as a child in Wheeler, Texas; photo in Pioneer West Museum in Shamrock, Texas

Bean was born in Wheeler, the seat of Wheeler County in the northeastern Texas Panhandle. He is of Scottish descent. As a boy, he lived in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, where his father worked for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. Bean graduated from R. L. Paschal High School in Fort Worth, Texas. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1955. At UT he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Omega Chi chapter). After a four year tour as a fighter pilot assigned to a jet attack squadron in Jacksonville, Fla.,^[1] he trained as a Navy Test Pilot where his instructor was his future Apollo 12 Commander Pete Conrad. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of science from Texas Wesleyan College in 1972, and was presented an honorary doctorate of engineering science degree from the University of Akron (Ohio) in 1974.

NASA experience[link]

Alan Bean on the Moon during Apollo 12.

Apollo[link]

Bean was selected by NASA as part of Astronaut Group 3 in 1963 (having been rejected for Astronaut Group 2 the previous year).^[2] He was selected to be the backup Command Pilot for Gemini 10 but was unsuccessful in securing an early Apollo flight assignment. He was placed in the Apollo Applications Program in the interim. In that capacity, he was the first astronaut to dive in the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator and a champion of the process for astronaut training.^[3] When fellow astronaut Clifton Williams was killed in an air crash, a space was opened for Bean on the back-up crew for Apollo 9. Apollo 12 Commander Conrad, who had instructed Bean at the Naval Flight Test School years before, personally requested Bean to replace Williams.

Bean was the lunar module pilot on Apollo 12, the second lunar landing. In November 1969, Al Bean and Pete Conrad landed in the Moon's Ocean of Storms—after a flight of 250,000 miles and a launch that included a harrowing lightning strike. Bean was the astronaut who executed John Aaron's famous "Flight, try SCE to 'Aux'" instruction to restore telemetry after the spacecraft was struck by lightning 36 seconds after launch, thus salvaging the mission. 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. Dick Gordon remained in lunar orbit photographing landing sites for future missions.

Bean had planned on using a self-timer for his Hasselblad camera in order to take a photograph of both himself and Pete Conrad while on the lunar surface near the Surveyor III spacecraft. Bean was hoping not only to record a wonderful photo, but also to confuse the scientists back home on how the photo could have been taken. However, neither he nor Conrad could locate the timer in the tool carrier tote bag while at the Surveyor III site and thus lost the opportunity. Bean did not locate the self-timer until the very end of the EVA when it was too late to use - at which point Bean threw it as hard as he could.^[4] Bean’s paintings of what this photo would have looked like (titled "The Fabulous Photo We Never Took") and one of his fruitless search for the timer ("Our Little Secret") are included in his collection of Apollo paintings.^[5][6]

Bean's Moon suit is on display in the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History in Fort Worth, Texas.

Bean shaving during the Skylab 3 mission.

Skylab[link]

Bean was also the spacecraft commander of Skylab 3, the second manned mission to Skylab, July 29, 1973 to September 25, 1973. With him on the 59-day, 24,400,000 mile world record setting flight were scientist-astronaut Dr. Owen Garriott and Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Jack Lousma. During the mission Bean also tested a prototype of the Manned Maneuvering Unit and performed one space walk outside the Skylab.

Post-flight experience[link]

Al Bean, February 2009

On his next assignment, Bean was backup spacecraft commander of the United States flight crew for the joint American-Russian Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

Bean retired from the Navy in October 1975 as a Captain but continued as head of the Astronaut Candidate Operations and Training Group within the Astronaut Office in a civilian capacity.

Awards and decorations[link]

• NASA Distinguished Service Medal (2x)
• Navy Astronaut Wings
• Navy Distinguished Service Medal (2x)
• Rear Admiral William S. Parsons Award for Scientific and Technical Progress
• University of Texas Distinguished Alumnus Award and Distinguished Engineering Graduate Award
• Godfrey L. Cabot Award
• National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Trustees Award
• Texas Press Associations Man of the Year Award for 1969
• City of Chicago Gold Medal
• Robert J. Collier Trophy for 1973
• Federation Aeronautique Internationale Yuri Gagarin Gold Medal for 1973
• V.M. Komarov Diploma for 1973 (1974)
• Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy for 1975 (1975)
• AIAA Octave Chanute Award for 1975 (1975)
• AAS Flight Achievement Award for 1974 (1975)

Bean as an artist[link]

Alan Bean in his studio

Bean resigned from NASA in June 1981 to devote his full time to painting. Many of his paintings reside on the walls of space enthusiasts. He said his decision was based on the fact that, in his 18 years as an astronaut, he was fortunate enough to visit worlds and see sights no artist's eye, past or present, has ever viewed firsthand and he hopes to express these experiences through the medium of art. He is pursuing this dream at his home and studio in Houston.

As a painter, Bean wanted to add color to the Moon. "I had to figure out a way to add color to the Moon without ruining it," he remarked. If you look at his paintings, you will see the lunar landscape is not a monotonous gray, but shades of various colors. "If I were a scientist painting the Moon, I would paint it gray. I'm an artist, so I can add colors to the Moon." says Bean.^{[citation needed]}

Alan Bean's paintings include "Lunar Grand Prix" and "Rock and Roll on the Ocean of Storms". He is the only artist in the world to use real Moon dust on his paintings. When he began painting, he realized that keepsake patches from his space suit were dirty with Moon dust. He adds tiny pieces of the patches to his paintings, which make them unique. He also uses the hammer used to pound the flagpole into the lunar surface as well as a bronzed Moon boot to texture his paintings.

Personal life[link]

Alan Bean museum marker in Shamrock; click to read.

Alan Bean presents a piece of moon rock at the Gasometer Oberhausen in March 2010.

He is married and has two grown children, a son and a daughter.

Bean took a little piece of MacBean tartan to the Moon.^[7]

Books[link]

• My Life As An Astronaut (1989)
• Apollo: An Eyewitness Account (with Andrew Chaikin) (1998)
• Into the Sunlit Splendor: The Aviation Art of William S. Phillips (with Ann Cooper, Charles S. Cooper and Wilson Hurley) (2005)
• Mission Control, This is Apollo: The Story of the First Voyages to the Moon (with Andrew Chaikin) (2009)
• Painting Apollo: First Artist on Another World (2009)

Bean's in-flight Skylab diary is featured in "Homesteading Space," a history of the Skylab program co-authored by fellow astronauts Joseph Kerwin and Owen Garriott and writer David Hitt, published in 2008.

Popular culture[link]

• The Rock band Hefner has a song called "Alan Bean", featuring the lyrics "Everyone will forget soon, The fourth man on the Moon, But I've got it in my mind." Bean appeared by telephone on a recording of a Dutch radio show on the VPRO broadcasting organisation when the band was performing in Amsterdam and talked with them shortly after the song's release.^[8]
• British band Lemon Jelly features the voice of Alan Bean (describing the sunrise, as seen during a spacewalk) in their song "Spacewalk" from the album Lost Horizons.
• Swedish singer-songwriter Stina Nordenstam has a song called "The Return of Alan Bean" on her 1991 debut album Memories of a Colour.
• Bean was on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on August 21, 2007.
• Bean is one of the astronauts profiled in the PBS documentary In the Shadow of the Moon.
• Bean is one of the astronauts profiled in the documentary The Wonder Of It All.
• An entire episode of the miniseries, From the Earth to the Moon was narrated from Bean's perspective; in the episode, he was portrayed by Dave Foley.
• Bean was interviewed by lunar landing conspiracy theorist Bart Sibrel for his documentary, Astronauts Gone Wild. Bean was one of the astronauts who agreed to swear on the Bible that he had walked on the Moon.^[9]
• Bean appears as a character in the book Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Jones, Eric (1995). "TV Troubles". http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a12/a12.tvtrbls.html. Retrieved 2007-07-16. 

External links[link]

• Alan Bean Online Gallery - An authorized gallery of all his paintings
• Alan Bean Astronaut Bio - NASA's biography of Bean
• Official publisher website for Homesteading Space

Dame Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey at Wembley Arena, 2006
Background information
Birth name	Shirley Veronica Bassey
Born	(1937-01-08) 8 January 1937 (age 75) Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales
Genres	Popular music
Occupations	Singer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1953–present
Labels	Philips, Columbia, United Artists, Decca, Geffen
Website	www.dameshirleybassey.com

Dame Shirley Bassey, DBE (born 8 January 1937^[1]), is a Welsh singer. She found fame in the mid-1950s and was "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century".^[2][3] In the US, in particular, she is best known for recording the theme songs to the James Bond films Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Moonraker (1979) and is the only artist to record more than one Bond theme song. Bassey is also a UNESCO Artist for Peace.^[2][4][5]

Birth to 1959[link]

"Born above a brothel in a docklands slum",^[6] Shirley Veronica Bassey was the sixth and last child of Eliza Jane Start^[7] and Henry Bassey in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales (now called Cardiff Bay), of paternal Nigerian and maternal English descent.^[2][8][9] Bassey's mother also had four children from previous relationships, two of whom lived in the Bassey household. Eliza had married previously, to Alfred Metcalfe, and upon her marriage to Bassey, Eliza Jane Metcalfe listed Alfred Metcalfe as her father on the marriage registry. It has thus been theorized that she never divorced Alfred, and that her marriage to Bassey was bigamous.^[10] Eliza and Henry's second child died in infancy, so Shirley was born into a household of three sisters, two half-sisters, and one brother.^[11] A year later her father was arrested and charged with having sex with a minor, was tried, imprisoned for five years, then deported.^[12] After Henry's arrest, Eliza and the children moved to the nearby steelworking district of Splott.^[13]