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VETERANIn MemoriamNASA
VETERANIn MemoriamNASANASA·🇺🇸 United States·Born 1928
Frank Borman
Commanded Apollo 8, the first crewed mission to leave Earth orbit and circle the Moon.
477h
Hours in Space
2
Missions
0
EVAs
—
EVA Time
Biography
Commanded Apollo 8, the first crewed mission to leave Earth orbit and circle the Moon. Later led Eastern Air Lines as CEO. He died in 2023.
Before NASAU.S. Air Force fighter pilot and test pilot who graduated eighth in his West Point class, earned a Master's in aeronautical engineering from Caltech, taught thermodynamics and fluid mechanics at West Point, and trained as a test pilot at Edwards AFB before joining NASA's second astronaut group in 1962.
Mission Timeline
- Commander
Gemini spacecraft
Gemini 7
Launch: Dec 4, 1965Landing: Dec 18, 1965Duration: 14 days- Record 14-day endurance flight; rendezvous target for Gemini 6A
- Commander
Apollo CSM / Saturn V
Apollo 8
Launch: Dec 21, 1968Landing: Dec 27, 1968Duration: 6 days- Commanded the first crewed flight to orbit the Moon
Beyond the Mission
Hobbies & Interests
ranchingaircraft restorationflying
Languages
English
Fun fact
After retiring from NASA, Borman built a second career as CEO of Eastern Air Lines and ran a 160,000-acre cattle ranch in Montana's Bighorn Mountains with 4,000 head of cattle — and he also restored a rare WWII Bell P-63 Kingcobra fighter that won Grand Champion Warbird at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in 1998.
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