Astronaut Frank Borman, who commanded Apollo 8’s historic Christmas 1968 flight that first circled the moon 10 times, has died aged 95.
Key points:
-
Borman died Tuesday in Montana aged 95, according to NASA
-
He and his crew, James Lovell and William Anders, were the first Apollo mission to fly to the moon
-
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Borman was “a true American hero”
Borman died Tuesday in Billings, Montana, according to NASA.
He and his crew, James Lovell and William Anders, were the first Apollo mission to fly to the moon — and to see Earth as a distant sphere in space.
They helped paved the way for the 1969 lunar landing.
“Today we remember one of NASA’s best,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement on Thursday local time.
“Astronaut Frank Borman was a true American hero.
“His lifelong love for aviation and exploration was only surpassed by his love for his wife Susan.”
Launched on December 21 1968, the Apollo 8 trio spent three days travelling to the moon, and slipped into lunar orbit on Christmas Eve.
They circled the moon 10 times between December 24 and 25 before heading home on December 27.
On Christmas Eve, the astronauts read from the Book of Genesis in a live telecast from the orbiter.
Borman ended the broadcast with, “And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth”.
Lovell and Borman had previously flown together during the two-week Gemini 7 mission, which launched on December 4, 1965 — and, at only 120 feet (36.5 metres) apart, completed the first space orbital rendezvous with Gemini 6.
“Gemini was a tough go,” Borman told The Associated Press in 1998.
“It was smaller than the front seat of a Volkswagen bug.
“It made Apollo seem like a super-duper, plush touring bus.”
‘We were the first humans to see the world’
In his memoir, Countdown: An Autobiography, Borman said Apollo 8 was originally supposed to orbit Earth.
But the success of Apollo 7’s mission in October 1968 showing system reliability on long duration flights made NASA decide it was time to tackle the moon.
Still, Borman said there was another reason NASA changed the plan: the agency wanted to beat the Russians.
Borman said he thought one orbit would suffice.
“My main concern in this whole flight was to get there ahead of the Russians and get home,” Borman explained in 2017.
“That was a significant achievement in my eyes.”
It was on the crew’s fourth orbit that Anders snapped the iconic Earthrise photo —showing a blue and white Earth rising above the grey lunar landscape.
“We were the first humans to see the world in its majestic totality, an intensely emotional experience for each of us,” Borman wrote of seeing the earth from afar.
“We said nothing to each other, but I was sure our thoughts were identical — of our families on that spinning globe.
“And maybe we shared another thought I had, This must be what God sees.”
He later received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor from US president Jimmy Carter.
Troubled history at Eastern Airlines
After NASA, Borman’s aviation career ventured into business in 1970 when he joined Eastern Airlines — at that time US’s fourth-largest airline.
He eventually became Eastern’s president and CEO and in 1976 also became its chairman of the board.
Borman’s tenure at Eastern saw fuel prices increase sharply and the government deregulate the airline industry.
The airline became increasingly unprofitable, debt-ridden and torn by labour tensions.
He resigned in 1986 and moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico and later started a cattle ranch with his son.
Borman married his high school sweetheart Susan Bugbee who died in 2021.
He is survived by his sons Fred and Edwin and their families.
AP