Frank Borman
Frank Frederick Borman, II (born March 14, 1928) is a retired NASA astronaut, 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. Borman was born in Gary, Indiana. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1950, 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 Aerospace Research Pilot School and became a test pilot.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. Borman was one of five astronauts who testified before a United States 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. Sukces Apollo 8 unikaÄ naraĹźania cel uczynienia pierwszego zaĹogowego lÄ
dowania na KsiÄĹźycu do koĹca 1969, nie czekajÄ
c na opóźnione LM, a takĹźe cenne doĹwiadczenie w nawigacji do KsiÄĹźyca. Borman retired from NASA and the Air Force in 1970, becoming special advisor to Eastern Air Lines.
Spaceflights
No. Mission Position Time Duration
1 Gemini 7 Command Pilot 04.12. - 18.12.1965 13d 18h 35m
2 Apollo 8 CDR 21.12. - 27.12.1968 6d 03h 00m
Total 19d 21h 35m
