Borman, Frank (1928-2023), commanded the United States Apollo 8 spaceflight, which circled the moon in 1968. Borman made the flight with astronauts James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. Anders. The flight began from Cape Kennedy (now Cape Canaveral), Florida, on December 21, and ended on December 27.
Borman and Lovell also circled Earth for 14 days in Gemini 7 in 1965. Gemini 7 and Gemini 6 made the first rendezvous (meeting) in space. After the Apollo 8 flight, Borman became field director of the manned space station task group at the Manned Spacecraft Center (now Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center). He resigned from the space program in 1970. Borman became president of Eastern Airlines in 1975. He became chairman of the board in 1976. Texas Air Corporation bought Eastern in 1986, and Borman served as vice chairman of Texas Air from 1986 to 1991.
Borman was born on March 14, 1928, in Gary, Indiana. He joined the Air Force after graduating from the U.S. Military Academy in 1950. In 1957, he earned a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He became an astronaut in 1962. Borman died on Nov. 7, 2023.
