Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean dead at 86
Washington, May 27: 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 at the age of 86 at a hospital in Houston, the US space agency announced.
NASA announced his death on Saturday night noting that he had fallen ill during two weeks of travel, reports The Washington Post.
Bean was born on March 15, 1932, in Wheeler, Tex., and completed high school in Fort Worth.
He was a Navy test pilot first and later joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1963.
He made his first voyage into space on November 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 F. Gordon Jr., the command module pilot, and Bean, whose duty was as lunar module pilot.
After more than four days of flying through space, Conrad and Bean settled onto the lunar surface on November 19, landing in a broad plain called the Ocean of Storms.
Four years later, Bean returned to space as commander of the second mission to the Skylab orbiting space station. He and two astronauts, Jack Lousma and Owen Garriott, stayed aloft for 59 days, conducting a variety of biological experiments to test the body's ability to endure the physical and psychological demands of prolonged space flight.
In the late 1970s, Bean became chief of the astronaut training programme, preparing for the first shuttle mission, which was launched in 1981, The Washington Post reported.
He soon retired from NASA and devoted himself to painting, a longtime hobby that had become an overriding passion.
His paintings have been exhibited at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington and have sold to collectors for well in excess of $100,000.
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BJP, JD(S) leaders helped win Channapatna bypoll: D K Shivakumar
Ramangara (PTI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Sunday hinted at cracks and squabbling within the BJP and the JD(S), as he gave credit to the leaders of these parties for the defeat of JD(S) candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy in the Channapatna assembly bypoll.
Congress candidate C P Yogeeshwara won in Channapatna bypoll with a margin of 25,413 votes against his nearest rival and NDA candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy, as results were announced on Saturday.
The Congress party swept all the three assembly constituencies in Karnataka, namely Channapatna, Sandur and Shiggaon, which went for bypolls.
Nikhil Kumaraswamy is the son of Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy and grandson of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda. In September last year, JD(S) joined the NDA led by BJP.
“Many people from across the parties have helped us in this election (Channapatna). Congress had only 16,000 votes in the previous assembly election. It increased in the Lok Sabha election,” Shivakumar told reporters here.
According to him, many people from the JD(S) and the BJP supported the Congress. “If the BJP and the JD(S) leaders had not supported us directly or indirectly, we wouldn’t have got so many votes. I congratulate them,” Shivakumar, who is also the Congress state president, said.
He quipped that the JD(S), which had 19 seats in the Karnataka Assembly, has now reduced to 18.
Hailing the electorate, the Deputy CM said this was people’s verdict in favour of C P Yogeeshwara to develop Channapatna constituency.
There was no immediate reaction from the BJP or the JD(S) on it.
