Frank Borman

Frank Borman
NASA Astronaut
Nationality	American
Status	Retired
Born	March 14, 1928 (1928-03-14) Gary, Indiana
Other occupation	Test pilot
Rank	Colonel, USAF
Time in space	19d 21h 35 m
Selection	1962 NASA Group
Missions	Gemini 7, Apollo 8
Mission insignia
Awards

Frank Frederick Borman, II (born March 14, 1928) is a retired NASA astronaut and engineer, best remembered as the Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, making him, along with fellow crew mates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, the first of only 24 humans to do so. Before flying on Apollo, he set a fourteen-day spaceflight endurance record on Gemini 7, and also served on the NASA review board which investigated the Apollo 1 fire. After leaving NASA, he was the chief executive officer (CEO) of Eastern Air Lines from 1975 to 1986. Frank Borman is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. In the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, Borman was played by David Andrews.

Early career

Borman was born in Gary, Indiana, where the Frank Borman Expressway is named after him. Because he suffered from numerous sinus problems in the cold and damp weather, his father packed up the family and moved to the better climate of Tucson, Arizona, which Borman considers his home town. He started to fly at the age of 15. He is a graduate of the Tucson High School. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1950 where he served as an Army Football Manager, and along with part of his graduating class, he entered the United States Air Force (USAF) and became a fighter pilot. He received his Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1957. Later, Borman was selected for the USAF test pilot school and became a test pilot.

NASA career

Project Gemini

Borman was selected by NASA for the second NASA astronaut group in 1962, and was chosen as the Command Pilot for Gemini 7. He was one of just four of this group chosen to command their first Gemini missions, the others being James McDivitt, Neil Armstrong, and Elliot See. (See was killed in a T-38 trainer jet crash three months before his mission. Astronauts Gerald Carr and Joe Engle, selected later, also commanded their first space flights.)

Borman flew Gemini 7 in December 1965 with Pilot James A. Lovell, Jr.. This was a long-endurance flight which set a fourteen-day record, and also acted as the target vehicle in the first space rendezvous performed by Gemini 6A. The two craft came within one foot (30 centimeters) of each other and they took turns flying around each other, taking both still and motion pictures.

Apollo Program

Borman was selected in late 1966 to command the third manned Apollo mission, planned as an elliptical medium Earth orbit test of the second manned Lunar Module (LM) on the first manned launch of the Saturn V lunar rocket sometime in 1967 or early 1968. But in January 1967, the crew of the first manned Apollo mission, Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Ed White, and Roger B. Chaffee were killed in a cabin fire aboard their Apollo 1 Command Module, also designated AS-204.

Borman was chosen as the only astronaut to serve on the AS-204 Accident Review Board, charged with investigating the root causes of the fire and recommending corrective measures. In April 1967, while serving on the board, Borman was one of five astronauts who testified before a US Senate committee investigating the Apollo 1 fire. His testimony helped convince Congress that Apollo would be safe to fly again.

Borman was then reassigned to his LM test mission, now planned to fly as Apollo 9 in early 1969 after a first, low Earth orbit LM flight commanded by McDivitt in December 1968. But the LM was not ready for its first flight, leading NASA management to decide to replace Borman's mission with a lunar orbit flight using just the Command/Service Module as Apollo 8 in December, making McDivitt's flight Apollo 9 in March 1969. Borman's "Lunar Module Pilot" (and spacecraft systems engineer) was William Anders. The Command Module Pilot and navigator, Michael Collins, had to have back surgery and was replaced by his backup, James Lovell, reuniting Borman with his Gemini 7 crewmate. Apollo 8 went into lunar orbit on December 24 and made ten orbits of the Moon in 20 hours before returning to Earth.

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.

— Frank Borman, live broadcast from lunar orbit (1968)

The success of Apollo 8 avoided jeopardizing the goal of making the first manned Moon landing by the end of 1969 by not waiting for the delayed LM, and also provided invaluable experience in navigation to the Moon.

Space journalist Andrew Chaikin claims that, following the death of Gus Grissom, Borman became astronaut chief Deke Slayton's choice to command the first Moon landing attempt. In the fall of 1968 Slayton offered command of the first landing to Borman, who turned it down, choosing to retire instead. Slayton then offered the position to McDivitt, who also refused.

Eastern Air Lines

Borman retired from NASA and the Air Force in 1970, becoming special advisor to Eastern Air Lines. He rose in the ranks of Eastern, becoming CEO in December 1975. The airline business underwent many changes in the late 1970s, and despite a promising start, Eastern ultimately did not do well under Borman. Borman sold Eastern to Texas Air, headed by Frank Lorenzo, after many contentious battles with labor unions, particularly the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). Borman retired from Eastern in 1986. A strike by the IAM in 1989 eventually forced Eastern into bankruptcy and finally liquidation.

Retirement

Borman with James Lovell and William Anders in December 2008

Borman returned to Tucson, Arizona, to reside, and as of 2006 has been living in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where he enjoys rebuilding and flying airplanes from World War II and the Korean era. Today, he is a member of the Society of Antique Modelers (SAM). Borman gave the Commencement Address to the graduating class of 2008 at the University of Arizona.

Borman has since appeared in the documentary When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions. On November 13, 2008, Borman and fellow Apollo 8 crewmembers Jim Lovell and Bill Anders appeared on the NASA TV channel to discuss the Apollo 8 mission.

Borman currently resides with his wife Susan in Bighorn, Montana.

Quotes

"There's no question that it was a coffin, and I'd have flown it gladly." — Public comment on the hazardous design and construction of the Apollo Command Module, while serving on the AS-204 Accident Review Board.

"Had that rocket not fired, I'd still be orbiting the moon. Forever. And I really didn't want to do that." — Spoken of the Apollo 8 mission during the documentary When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions

"I've long said that capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell. But it's hard to see any good news in this." - As Chairman of Eastern Airlines

Awards

• Society of Experimental Test Pilots James H. Doolittle Award, 1976
• Congressional Space Medal of Honor, 1978
• Tony Jannus Award, 1986

Tributes

• I-80/I-94 in Lake County, Indiana, which runs through his birthtown of Gary, Indiana, is named the Frank Borman Expressway.

References

• Borman, Frank; Serling, Robert J. (October 1988). Countdown: An Autobiography. Silver Arrow. ISBN 0-688-07929-6. 

External links

• Official NASA biography
• Spacefacts biography of Frank Borman
• Frank Borman at the Internet Movie Database
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Works by or about Frank Borman in libraries (WorldCat catalog)