Frank Borman was an astronaut who commanded Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the moon.
- Died: November 7, 2023 (Who else died on November 7?)
- Details of death: Died at a hospital in Billings, Montana of a stroke at the age of 95.
- We invite you to share condolences for Frank Borman in our Guest Book.
Frank Borman’s legacy
Borman dreamed of flight since childhood, when his father took him for a ride in a barnstorming biplane. His dreams came true after he graduated West Point in 1950, when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. He worked as a flight instructor and taught at West Point before being selected as a test pilot in 1960. At that time, the Mercury Seven, the first group of NASA astronauts, had recently been selected, and they were all fellow test pilots. Borman came to follow the same path.
Borman was selected in 1962 as one of the “Next Nine” – the second group of astronauts chosen by NASA. Having long since fulfilled his dream of flight, he focused on a new goal: reaching the Moon before the Soviet Union.
Borman’s first mission was Gemini 7, where he served as command pilot alongside pilot Jim Lovell. The 1965 mission lasted nearly 14 days and was focused on identifying and troubleshooting the human problems they might encounter in long-term spaceflight. Borman and Lovell offered recommendations about uniforms, food and water, waste disposal, and more based on their experiences with the mission. The two weeks in space included plenty of downtime, so the astronauts read books; Borman chose “Roughing It” by Mark Twain.
In between spaceflights, Borman provided crucial commentary after the disaster of Apollo 1, which never went to space after a fire during a test run killed all three crew members and destroyed the command module. Borman was one of five astronauts who testified before Congress. His confidence in the abilities of NASA and its astronauts to recover from the tragedy and launch successful missions was one of the key factors in the government’s decision to move forward with the Apollo program.
Borman’s next spaceflight came in 1968 on Apollo 8. With his crewmates, Lovell and William Anders, Borman became one of the first three humans to orbit the Moon. He is also believed to have been the first to suffer from space adaptation syndrome, which caused stomach distress on his second day in space. Apollo 8 orbited the Moon on December 24, and as they orbited, the three crew members delivered a Christmas message via a live TV broadcast. They described the lunar surface, which Borman called “a vast, lonely, forbidding expanse of nothing,” then they took turns reading from the first 10 verses of Genesis. 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.”
Borman later served as NASA’s liaison to the White House during Apollo 11, when astronauts landed on the Moon. Shortly after, he retired from NASA and from the Air Force. He went on to join Eastern Airlines, first as its senior vice president for operations. In 1976, Borman was named CEO, taking the helm of a troubled company that was near bankruptcy. He made major changes, cutting out many plush upper management positions and modeling frugality by driving a used Chevrolet. By 1978, the company had begun turning a profit again, though they later suffered from competition by budget airlines, and they were taken over by Texas Air in 1986. Borman resigned shortly afterward.
Later in life, Borman owned and operated a cattle ranch in Montana. He published the autobiography “Countdown” in 1996. After the death of John Glenn (1921–2016), he was the oldest living former NASA astronaut, just 11 days older than his two-time crewmate Lovell. Borman was widely honored, including the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, induction into several halls of fame such as the International Space Hall of Fame, 10 honorary doctorate degrees, the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Medal, and many more.
Borman on seeing the Earth from space
“It’s 240,000 miles away. It was small enough you could cover it with your thumbnail. The dearest things in life that were back on the Earth – my family, my wife, my parents. They were still alive then. That was, for me, the high point of the flight from an emotional standpoint. …The thing that reminds me, that I recall till the day I die, was the Earth, looking back at the Earth.” —from a 2018 interview for This American Life
Tributes to Frank Borman
Full obituary: The New York Times
