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Apollo 8 astronaut Frank Borman dies at 95

Obit Borman — Frank Borman ponders a question at news conference in Miami, June 3, 1986. Borman, who commanded Apollo 8'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. Borman died Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, in Billings, Mont., according to a NASA statement Thursday.

Lovell and Borman c NASA 1965.jpg — Gemini-7 astronauts James Lovell Jr., center, and Frank Borman, right, review mission requirements for their Gemini-7 flight. The two astronauts are scheduled for a 14-day mission. On the fifth day, they will attempt a rendezvous with the Gemini-6 spacecraft to be launched nine days later and piloted by astronaut Walter Schirra Jr. and Thomas Stafford.

FrankBorman — Apollo 8 Commander Frank Borman poses in Billings, Mont., with a photograph of Earth taken as his spaceship orbited the moon 45 years ago. 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, died Tuesday. He was 95.

Adrian Gomez Adrian Gomez Adrian Gomez Journal Arts Editor

Published November 9, 2023 - 5:44 p.m. Modified December 14, 2024 - 2:00 a.m.

Borman official.jpg — Former NASA astronaut Col. (ret.) Frank Borman. Borman died on Tuesday at 95.

Frank Borman, a veteran of Gemini 7 and Apollo 8 and NASA’s oldest living astronaut, died Tuesday in Billings, Montana.

The former Las Cruces resident and businessman was 95.

Frank Borman II was born in Gary, Indiana, on March 14, 1928, but was raised in Tucson. Fascinated by airplanes from the time he was 5, Borman earned his pilot’s license at 15.

He graduated from Tucson High School in 1946, and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1950 and a Master of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1957. He completed the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program in 1970.

After leaving West Point, Borman chose a career in the Air Force, earning his pilots’ wings in 1951. For the next five years, he served in fighter squadrons in the United States and the Philippines.

Borman became an assistant professor of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics at the U.S. Military Academy in 1957.

In 1960, he graduated from the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Research Pilots School, then stayed on as an instructor until 1962, when he was selected by NASA to be an astronaut.

From Dec. 4-18, 1965, Borman and James Lovell Jr. spent a then-record 14 days in orbit aboard Gemini 7.

While they were in orbit, Gemini VI, with astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford, was launched.

The two Gemini craft executed the first space rendezvous, their ships maneuvering to within one foot of one another on Dec. 15.

Apollo 8, the first crewed mission to use the mammoth Saturn V rocket, was launched on Dec. 21, 1968. Its crew, Commander Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell and Lunar Module pilot William Anders became the first humans to travel to the moon, though they did not land.

Once in orbit, Apollo 8 circled the Earth just three times before aiming toward the moon.

After Apollo 8, Borman left NASA to serve as a Special Presidential Ambassador on trips throughout the Far East and Europe, including a 1970 worldwide tour to seek support for the release of American prisoners of war held by North Vietnam.

Borman was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo in 1982.

He retired from Eastern Airlines in June 1986 and moved to Las Cruces, where he and his son ran a Ford dealership, which they operated for several years.