Astronaut Frank Borman dies; Apollo 8 commander paved way for moon landing

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Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. — Astronaut Frank Borman, who commanded Apollo 8’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.

Borman died Tuesday in Billings, Montana, according to NASA.

Borman also led troubled Eastern Airlines in the 1970s and early ’80s after leaving the astronaut corps.

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 — and to see Earth as a distant sphere in space.

“Today we remember one of NASA’s best. Astronaut Frank Borman was a true American hero,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement Thursday. “His lifelong love for aviation and exploration was only surpassed by his love for his wife Susan.”

Launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Dec. 21, 1968, the Apollo 8 trio spent three days traveling to the moon, and slipped into lunar orbit on Christmas Eve. After they circled 10 times on Dec. 24-25, they headed home on Dec. 27.

On Christmas Eve, the astronauts read from the Book of Genesis in a live telecast from the orbiter: “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.”

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.”

From L to R, Apollo 8 astronauts spacecraft Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders, who became the first humans to escape Earth's gravity and the first humans to see the far side of the Moon, look up at cheering crewmen on the upper deck of the USS Yorktown, recovery ship for the Apollo 8 mission, 27 December 1968, after having steped from the helicopter which brought them from their landing point in the Pacific ocean. After launching 21 December 1968, the crew took three days to travel to the Moon, orbited it ten times, 20 hours in total, and landed 27 December 1968 in the Pacific. (Photo by - / NASA / AFP) (Photo by -/NASA/AFP via Getty Images)
The Apollo 8 crew — Commander Frank Borman, from left, Command Module Pilot James Lovell and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders — appear on the USS Yorktown after their return to earth in 1968. They were the first Apollo mission to fly to the moon​, and to see Earth as a distant sphere in space. (NASA/AFP via Getty Images Archives)

Lovell and Borman had previously flown together during the two-week Gemini 7 mission, which launched on Dec. 4, 1965 — and, at only 120 feet 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.”

In his book, “Countdown: An Autobiography,” Borman said Apollo 8 was originally supposed to orbit Earth. The success of Apollo 7’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.

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