Biography

Frank Borman

Jump to

Frank Frederick Borman II (born March 14, 1928) is a retired United States Air Force (USAF) colonel, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, businessman, and NASA astronaut. He was the commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, and together with crew-mates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, became the first of 24 humans to do so, for which he was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. As of 2022, he is the oldest living former American astronaut, eleven days older than Lovell.
- IMDb mini biography by: Bonitao

After flying for NASA he became CEO and spokesman for Eastern Airlines.
A veteran of two spaceflights, Gemini 7 and Apollo 8. On Gemini 7 he flew with Jim Lovell for a duration record of 14 days and rendezvoused with Gemini 6. On Apollo 8 he again flew with Jim Lovell and Bill Anders becoming the first men to leave earth orbit and circle the moon. They made a memorable Christmas Eve television broadcast showing the lunar surface and reading from the first chapter of Genesis.
Has two sons, Frederick and Edwin, and four grandchildren.
He received a master's degree in aeronautical engineering from the California Institute of Technology.
He graduated near the top of his class at the U.S. Military Academy, and became an Air Force test pilot of supersonic jet fighters.

We have company tonight. [Message from Gemini 7 on sighting Gemini 6 before they became the first two spacecraft to rendezvous in space, December 1965]
It's a vast, lonely, forbidding expanse of nothing ... rather like clouds and clouds of pumice stone. And it certainly does not appear to be a very inviting place to live or work. [Message from Apollo 8 during the first manned orbit of the Moon, Christmas day, 1968]
And God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas, and God saw that it was good.

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.
Exploration really is the essence of the human spirit, and to pause, to falter, to turn our back on the quest for knowledge, is to perish.

Suggest an edit or add missing content