Armstrong's Lantern: Spaceflight Scottish Connections

In November, 1969, a 37-year old US Naval aviator and astronaut named Alan Bean was part of the crew of Apollo 12. Bean, who like Armstrong, was aware of his Scottish heritage, carried a large swatch of the MacBean tartan with him to the moon. An article from the September, 1969 Clan Chattan Journal, written by Hughston McBain of McBain, told of Bean’s flight to the moon on Apollo 12, and that Bean “has agreed to take a half yard of MacBean tartan with him, leave half of it on the moon as a flag, and bring back the other half for deposit in our archives.”

The tartan, the article claims, was purchased in Victoria, British Columbia by a society officer, noting that the sales clerk asked, “Are you going to claim the Moon for Scotland?” The response was “By no means – we are going to claim it for the MacBeans!”

Much like Armstrong, there are a number of claims found across the Internet that Bean left the tartan on the moon, which is simply not true.

In a note to the editor of the Alan Bean Gallery web site date April 30, 2005, Bean stated:
As I remember it, I took the Clan MacBean Tartan to the moon and returned it to Earth. I did not leave any of the Clan MacBean Tartan on the surface. I did, in fact, give a piece of the tartan to the Clan MacBean and also to the St. Bean Chapel in Scotland. And I’ve still got some of it in my possession. I did not, however, leave any of it on the moon.

Bean confirmed this to this author in a phone interview in May, 2008, stating that “One plaid material, 14 x 14 inches” was kept in his Personal Preference Kit (PPK) #1068 in the Command Module (CM), and then transferred over to the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM). Bean noted that the tartan was not taken out onto the lunar surface during the 33 hour Extravehicular Activity (EVA).

After returning to Earth, Bean presented a piece of tartan to then Hughston McBain of McBain, the Chief of the Clan MacBean, and another piece to St. Bean’s Church, which is located in the village of Fowlis Wester in Strathearn, Scotland.
Ironically, the tartan carried by Bean on Apollo 12 apparently was no longer the official clan tartan, according to the late tartan scholar James Scarlett. “When the later Hughston McBain [was] matriculated as Chief, he adopted a minor variation on this [the MacBean tartan]. I have a note that the piece of the MacBean tartan that went to the moon was of the old, no longer official, pattern.””

A small portion of the tartan was attached to one of Bean’s paintings, Clan MacBean Arrives on the Moon, which was presented to the Clan MacBean Society’s annual gathering in Wichita, Kansas in September, 1996 by Bean. Bean, wearing a glengarry in the MacBean tartan, was made an official honorary member at the gathering, and presented a program on the Apollo 12 mission.

In 2011, Bean sent a swatch of tartan to the Scottish Tartans Authority with the following note:
“To the Scottish Tartans Authority. This piece of MacBeantartan was flown to the moon in our Apollo 12 Command Module ‘Yankee Clipper.’ It was then transferred to our lunar module ‘Intrepid’ and was landed on the moon, November 1969. I am entrusting this valuable piece of tartan history to your care. (Signed) Alan Bean, Lunar Module Pilot.”