The 12 Moonwalkers: Where Are They Now?

Charles "Pete" Conrad

Pete Conrad wasn't the first to walk on the moon, but some remember him as the first to dance on it.

Astronaut James Irwin salutes a U.S. flag planted on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 15...

Astronaut James Irwin salutes a U.S. flag planted on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 15 mission in August, 1971. The lunar module is at center with Hadley Delta in the background, and the lunar rover vehicle driven by the astronauts waits at right.

(NASA, via AP Photo)

In "Rocketman," a book about the astronaut's "incredible ride to the moon and beyond," his wife Nancy Conrad and Howard A. Klausner, describe the third man to walk on the moon as an adventurous, free-spirited space cowboy.

As the world listened to Conrad's first moments on the moon, he hummed. And then he shouted.

"Whoopie! That may have been one small step for Neil, but it's a long one for me!" he roared.

Conrad was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1962 and traveled to the moon in November 1969 as the commander of Apollo 12, the second lunar landing.

Years later, in an interview with Chaikin, he said, "I remember thinking I got to go to the moon. And I can also remember thinking, it's going to change a lot of people, to do that. … I thought very hard about that I didn't want it to change me… [And now] I don't think it changed me."

After 20 years of service, including 11 as an astronaut in the space program, Conrad retired from the U.S. Navy to begin a career in business. He accepted an executive position with the American Television and Communications Corp., a cable television company in Denver, and later became vice president for the Douglas Aircraft Company.

In July 1999, at age 69, Conrad died after a motorcycle crash near Ojaj, Calif. He was survived by his wife, three sons and several grandchildren.

In his book, "Carrying the Fire," fellow astronaut Michael Collins describes his courageous and notoriously puckish colleague as "One of the few who lives up to the image."

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The Many Moons of Earth

Alan Bean

In 1969, Alan Bean touched down on the Moon. But through his paintings, the astronaut cum artist says he tries to extend the moment.

"Our time on the Moon ended much too quickly and, in the years since then, I have created paintings to try to capture the feeling of our Apollo 12 mission, as well as all the other the Apollo missions, too," he says in an introduction on his Web site.

After 18 years with NASA, in 1981, the Apollo 12 moonwalker decided to pursue painting full-time to share the sights no other artist had ever seen. But he approached it the way he might a moon mission.

"So I took some time off and painted full-time to see if I'd like it. I simulated it, which is always good. I learned that at NASA; and the more I simulated being an artist, the more I realized it's much more difficult than I'd thought," he said. "But at the same time I liked it. I cared about it! I had many nice job offers for a lot of money, but I didn't care about them. I care about these paintings. I care about them every day."

After landing on the moon's Ocean of Storms with Pete Conrad in 1969, Bean stayed with NASA, painting on the side.

But after retiring at age 49, he devoted his time to painting in his Houston studio. In 1984, he publicly displayed his work for the first time in Houston. His exhibit, "First Artist on Another Planet," is currently at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Each of his paintings includes small pieces of moon memorabilia – from parts of his name tag to Apollo mission patches and the U.S. flag. (His Web site points out that "each of the fragments is embedded with small amounts of lunar dust.")

"I remember thinking in lunar orbit, that if I got back from this, I was going to live my life differently, in that I was going to try to live it… like I want to live it," he said in an interview with Chaikin. "Mostly it made me have a lot of courage to do what I wanted to do and be happy about it… that's one thing that really allowed me to be an artist. I probably wouldn't have had the courage to be an artist."