Inside astronaut Frank Borman’s final years before death from flying planes in his 90s to unwavering devotion to wife
APOLLO 8 commander Frank Borman, who led the first manned mission to orbit the moon, has died at the age of 95.
Borman circled the moon 10 times in 1968 and was hailed an American hero before his death on Tuesday in Billings, Montana.
The astronaut, 95, was best known for his time at Nasa where he and his team were the first people to see the Earth from a distance.
“Today we remember one of NASA’s best. Astronaut Frank Borman was a true American hero,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement on Thursday.
“His lifelong love for aviation and exploration was only surpassed by his love for his wife Susan.”
Borman was commissioned as a US Air Force officer in 1950. He married his wife, Susan Bugbee Borman, later that year.
The American icon often spoke about his love for his wife and spent some of his final years caring for her after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. She died in September 2021.
Despite his decades-long career, he insisted his marriage was better than any journey to space.
“The best thing that ever happened to me wasn’t going to the moon or flying a particular airplane, it was finding the right companion and the most wonderful wife that was ever invented,” Borman said in a 2017 interview.
APOLLO 8
Apollo 8 spent three days traveling the moon and going into its orbit on Christmas Eve in 1968.
The astronauts brought in the holidays by reading the Book of Genesis in a live telecast from space, broadcasting: “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.”
In his book, Countdown: An Autobiography, Borman said that Apollo 8 was originally supposed to orbit Earth.
However, Apollo 7’s successful mission in October 1968 led Nasa to realize that long flights could be safe for a crew.
Borman also revealed that the space race with Russia also influenced the space shuttle orbiting the moon.
“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,” Borman explained at a Chicago appearance in 2017.
During the crew’s fourth orbit, the iconic “Earthrise” photo was taken, making history as the first colored photo of Earth seen from space.
Borman wrote about how the Earth looked from afar: “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 — of our families on that spinning globe. And maybe we shared another thought I had, This must be what God sees.”
LIFE AFTER NASA
In the 1970s, Borman ventured into business and joined the United States’ fourth-largest airline, East Airlines.
He eventually became the president and CEO in 1976.
During his time with the airline, the business dealt with rising fuel prices as well as the government deregulation of the airline industry.
Once Eastern Airline began to struggle with debt and profit, the astronaut resigned in 1986 and moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico.