Alan Bean was born in Wheeler, Texas, and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. Before becoming an astronaut, Bean was a Navy test pilot and logged 5,500 hours of flying time in 27 different types of aircraft. He flew on Apollo 12 as the Lunar Module pilot during the second lunar landing and was the fourth man to walk on the Moon. In 1973 Bean commanded the Skylab 3 Mission and set a world record with his 59-day, 24 million-mile flight. He retired from NASA in 1981 to focus on creating artwork inspired by his experiences on the Moon. He became a noted painter and sculptor, and often used Moon dust and bits of Apollo spacecraft in his works.