Astronaut Alan Bean dies at 86

Former NASA astronaut and Apollo 12 lunar module pilot Alan Bean died on Saturday night at a Hospital in Houston, Texas.

Bean's passing was announced by NASA in a press release this weekend. He became suddenly ill while travelling in Indiana two weeks ago.

Bean earned an engineering degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and was commissioned in the US Navy. NASA selected him as a member of its third class of astronauts in 1963.

Following his astronaut training and a few runs as a backup crew member, Bean received his assignment as the lunar module pilot for Apollo 12, which, in November 1969 became NASA's second mission the Moon's surface. He was the fourth man to walk on the moon, making him one of twelve people to do so.

He also commanded the second crew to live and work on board the Skylab orbital workshop. During the then-record-setting 59-day, 24.4 million-mile flight, Bean and his two crewmates generated 18 miles of computer tape during surveys of Earth's resources and 76,000 photographs of the Sun to help scientists better understand its effects on the solar system.

He retired from NASA in 1981 and dedicated his life to painting. Inspired by his own experiences as an astronaut, Bean spent the past four decades creating art themed around space exploration. He created Apollo-based paintings that would include moon dust and parts of his mission patches.

Taking to twitter, NASA commemorated him by posting a video highlighting all the important moments of his life.