The NASA informed that the American astronaut Frank Borman, who led the first ever space mission around the moon on Apollo 8, passed away in Billings, Montana, aged 95.
Frank Borman and two fellow astronauts, Lovell and Anders, were the first humans to ever see the far side of the Moon on the Apollo 8 expedition in 1968.
Frank Frederick Borman was born on March 14, 1928, in Gary, Indiana. He entered West Point on July 1, 1946 and later elected to be a fighter pilot. In 1951 he was assigned to the 44th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, which was based at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. Borman returned to the USA and received his Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering in June 1957. Then became an assistant professor of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics at West Point, where he served until 1960.
When selected by NASA, Frank Borman was instructor at the Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards AFB, California. In 1967 he served as a member of the Apollo 204 Fire Investigation Board, investigating the causes of the fire which killed three astronauts aboard an Apollo spacecraft.
In December 1965, he commanded the two-man Gemini 7 spacecraft on a 14-day flight that set what was then a record for time spent in space.
Apollo 8 launched on December 21, 1968, and was the second crewed spaceflight mission flown in the United States Apollo space program. The Apollo 8 trio, Borman, Lovell and Anders, spent three days travelling to the moon, and slipped into lunar orbit on Christmas Eve. After they circled 10 times, they headed home on Dec. 27. On Christmas Eve 1968, Borman was the first to spot the Earth rising above the lunar horizon, a sparkling blue and white body amid the blackness which was captured by the Major Anders.
Borman retired from the air Force in 1970, but is well remembered as a part of this nation’s history, a pioneer in the exploration of space and a veteran of both the Gemini 7, 1965 Space Orbital Rendezvous with Gemini 6 and the first manned lunar orbital mission, Apollo 8, in 1968.
In September of 1990, Colonel Borman along with fellow Apollo 8 astronauts, Lovell and Anders, was inducted into the International Aerospace Hall of Fame.
(Source: NASA/Wikipedia/CBC/New York Times/BBC – Image: Frank Borman and the famous “Earthrise” photo taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 1968/NASA)