title: Apollo : An Eyewitness Account By Astronaut/Explorer Artist/Moonwalker
author:  Alan Bean 
description: When NASA sent the crew of <I>Apollo 12</I> to the moon, they may not have realized that they were giving an artist the vision that would carry him through a lifetime of painting. The artist, of course, was astronaut Alan Bean, whose trip to the moon with pals Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon sunk so deeply into his brain that he's been trying to get it down on canvas ever since. He even mixes moon dust and bits of charred <I>Apollo 12</I> heat shield into his paints to capture a bit of the Ocean of Storms in each image. The astronauts Bean paints are brave, exuberant, and all-American, right down to the reflections of Old Glory in their mirrored visors. His moon is surprisingly colorful and dreamlike, a magical place for jumping higher than you ever did before, racing around in the lunar rover, and swatting golf balls into orbit. <I>Apollo: An Eyewitness Account</I>, coauthored with space expert <a href="/exec/obidos/exact-author=Chaikin%2c%20Andrew/${0}">Andrew Chaikin</a>, is filled with Bean's riveting stories and paintings, recording a long, successful career as an explorer-artist. He recreates the drama and brash enthusiasm of the Apollo program in bold strokes. <I>--Therese Littleton</I>
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  ALLEN STROUD
  
  
  Fearless
  
  
  FLAME TREE PRESS
  
  
  London & New York
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Prologue
  
  
  1969
  
  
  Here follows a restricted memoir extract from an unnamed mission controller of
  the Apollo 10 mission during its journey around the Moon. This document
  remains classified, despite the maximum information embargo (one hundred
  years) being exceeded. Any inquiry I have made about the reason for this has
  been stonewalled. Even now, I am only able to forward you this partial
  transcription. The redacted elements have been restored with a little
  guesswork.
  
  
  All efforts to attribute the writing lead nowhere. None of the registered
  controllers on duty that day published stories of their experiences, and this
  document contradicts the official accounts of the astronauts and NASA at the
  time. The only thing that makes me consider that there’s some sort of truth to
  it is that it remains restricted and the identity