{"id":240688,"date":"2023-11-14T21:59:02","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T21:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?p=240688"},"modified":"2023-11-14T21:59:02","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T21:59:02","slug":"frank-borman-apollo-8-commander-dies-at-95","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/frank-borman-apollo-8-commander-dies-at-95\/","title":{"rendered":"Frank Borman, Apollo 8 commander, dies at 95"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Frank Borman dead: Astronaut who commanded Apollo 8 has passed away at age 95 &#8211; decades after leading first manned mission to orbit the moon and return safely to Earth<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Astronaut Frank Borman, who commanded Apollo 8&#8217;s historic Christmas 1968 flight that circled the moon 10 times, has died at 95\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>He also led troubled Eastern Airlines in the 1970s and early &#8217;80s after leaving the astronaut corps\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>He and his crew, James Lovell and William Anders, were the first Apollo mission to fly to the moon\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Astronaut\u00a0Frank Borman, who commanded Apollo 8&#8217;s historic Christmas 1968 flight that circled the moon 10 times and paved the way for the lunar landing the next year, has died. He was 95.<\/p>\n<p>Borman died Tuesday in Billings, Montana, according to NASA.<\/p>\n<p>He also led troubled Eastern Airlines in the 1970s and early &#8217;80s after leaving the astronaut corps.<\/p>\n<p>But he was best known for his NASA duties. He and his crew, James Lovell and William Anders, were the first Apollo mission to fly to the moon &#8211; and to see Earth as a distant sphere in space.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Today we remember one of NASA\u00b4s best. Astronaut Frank Borman was a true American hero,&#8217; NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/10\/00\/77631271-0-FILE_This_late_1960s_portrait_shows_U_S_Col_Frank_Borman_command-a-1_1699576984813.jpg\" height=\"450\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>This late 1960s portrait shows U.S. Col. Frank Borman, commander of the Apollo 8 flight. Borman, who commanded Apollo 8&#8217;s historic Christmas 1968 flight that circled the moon 10 times and paved the way for the lunar landing seven months later, has died. He was 95<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;His lifelong love for aviation and exploration was only surpassed by his love for his wife Susan.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Launched from Florida\u00b4s Cape Canaveral on December 21, 1968, the Apollo 8 trio spent three days traveling to the moon, and slipped into lunar orbit on Christmas Eve.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After they circled 10 times on December 24-25, they headed home on December 27.<\/p>\n<p>On Christmas Eve, the astronauts read from the Book of Genesis in a live telecast from the orbiter: &#8216;In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Borman ended the broadcast with, &#8216;And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you &#8211; all of you on the good Earth.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Lovell and Borman had previously flown together during the two-week Gemini 7 mission, which launched on December 4, 1965 &#8211; and, at only 120 feet apart, completed the first space orbital rendezvous with Gemini 6.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Gemini was a tough go,&#8217; Borman told The Associated Press in 1998. &#8216;It was smaller than the front seat of a Volkswagen bug. It made Apollo seem like a super-duper, plush touring bus.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>In his book, &#8216;Countdown: An Autobiography,&#8217; Borman said Apollo 8 was originally supposed to orbit Earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/10\/00\/77631281-12732685-FILE_Apollo_8_astronauts_suited_up_and_ready_to_go_walk_to_a_van-a-10_1699577292921.jpg\" height=\"508\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Apollo 8 astronauts, suited up and ready to go, walk to a van heading for their Saturn V rocket for their moon orbit mission from Cape Kennedy, Florida, December 21, 1968. Leading the way is Commander Frank Borman<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/10\/00\/77631275-12732685-FILE_U_S_Astronaut_Frank_Borman_chats_with_people_on_the_Moscow_-a-11_1699577296536.jpg\" height=\"420\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Frank Borman chats with people on the Moscow subway in Russia, July 9, 1969<\/p>\n<p>The success of Apollo 7&#8217;s mission in October 1968 to show system reliability on long duration flights made NASA decide it was time to take a shot at flying to the moon.<\/p>\n<p>But 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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;My main concern in this whole flight was to get there ahead of the Russians and get home. That was a significant achievement in my eyes,&#8217; Borman explained at a Chicago appearance in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>It was on the crew&#8217;s fourth orbit that Anders snapped the iconic &#8216;Earthrise&#8217; photo showing a blue and white Earth rising above the gray lunar landscape.<\/p>\n<p>Borman wrote about how the Earth looked from afar: &#8216;We were the first humans to see the world in its majestic totality, an intensely emotional experience for each of us. We said nothing to each other, but I was sure our thoughts were identical &#8211; of our families on that spinning globe. And maybe we shared another thought I had, This must be what God sees.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>After NASA, Borman&#8217;s aviation career ventured into business in 1970 when he joined Eastern Airlines &#8211; at that time the nation\u00b4s fourth-largest airline.<\/p>\n<p>He eventually became Eastern\u00b4s president and CEO and in 1976 also became its chairman of the board.<\/p>\n<p>Borman\u00b4s tenure at Eastern saw fuel prices increase sharply and the government deregulate the airline industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/10\/00\/77631283-12732685-FILE_Frank_Borman_ponders_a_question_at_news_conference_in_Miami-a-12_1699577355347.jpg\" height=\"420\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Frank Borman ponders a question at news conference in Miami, June 3, 1986<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/10\/00\/77631273-12732685-FILE_Apollo_8_astronauts_from_left_James_Lovell_command_module_p-a-13_1699577357685.jpg\" height=\"498\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Apollo 8 astronauts, from left, James Lovell, command module pilot; William Anders, lunar module pilot; and Frank Borman, commander; stand in front of mission simulator prior to training in exercise for their scheduled six-day lunar orbital mission at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida<\/p>\n<p>The airline became increasingly unprofitable, debt-ridden and torn by labor tensions. He resigned in 1986 and moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>In his autobiography, Borman wrote that his fascination with flying began in his teens when he and his father would assemble model airplanes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At age 15, Borman took flying lessons, using money he had saved working as a bag boy and pumping gas after school.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He took his first solo flight after eight hours of dual instruction. He continued flying into his 90s.<\/p>\n<p>Borman was born in Gary, Indiana, but was raised in Tucson, Arizona. He attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in 1950.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That same year, Borman married his high school sweetheart, Susan Bugbee. She died in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Borman worked as a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, operational pilot and instructor at West Point after graduation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In 1956, Borman moved his family to Pasadena, California, where he earned a master of science degree in aeronautical engineering from California Institute of Technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/10\/00\/77631279-12732685-Apollo_astronaut_Frank_Borman_92_pilots_his_T_34_Mentor_in_Billi-a-14_1699577363552.jpg\" height=\"449\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Apollo astronaut Frank Borman, 92, pilots his T-34 Mentor in Billings, Montana<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/10\/00\/77631277-12732685-Apollo_8_Commander_Frank_Borman_poses_in_Billings_Mont_with_a_ph-a-15_1699577366570.jpg\" height=\"534\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Apollo 8 Commander Frank Borman poses in Billings in 2013 with a photograph of Earth taken as his spaceship orbited the moon in 1968<\/p>\n<p>In 1962, he was one of nine test pilots chosen by NASA for the astronaut program.<\/p>\n<p>He received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor from President Jimmy Carter.<\/p>\n<p>In 1998, Borman started a cattle ranch in Bighorn, Montana, with his son, Fred. In addition to Fred, he survived by another son, Edwin, and their families.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-12732685\/Frank-Borman-dead-Commander-apollo-8.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Frank Borman dead: Astronaut who commanded Apollo 8 has passed away at age 95 &#8211; decades after leading first manned mission to orbit the moon and return safely to Earth&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Frank Borman, Apollo 8 commander, dies at 95 - lovemainstream.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/world-news\/frank-borman-apollo-8-commander-dies-at-95\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Frank Borman, Apollo 8 commander, dies at 95 - lovemainstream.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Frank Borman dead: Astronaut who commanded Apollo 8 has passed away at age 95 &#8211; 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