Astronaut Frank Borman, commander of the first Apollo mission to moon, has died at age 95

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Astronaut Frank Borman, who commanded Apollo 8’s historic Christmas 1968 flight that circled the moon 10 times and paved the way for the lunar landing the next year, has died. He was 95.

Borman died Tuesday in Billings, Montana, according to NASA.

Borman also led troubled Eastern Airlines in the 1970s and early ’80s after leaving the astronaut corps.

But he was best known for his NASA duties. He and his crew, James Lovell and William Anders, were the first Apollo mission to fly to the moon — and to see Earth as a distant sphere in space.

“Today we remember one of NASA’s best. Astronaut Frank Borman was a true American hero,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement Thursday. “His lifelong love for aviation and exploration was only surpassed by his love for his wife Susan.”

Launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Dec. 21, 1968, the Apollo 8 trio spent three days traveling to the moon, and slipped into lunar orbit on Christmas Eve. After they circled 10 times on Dec. 24-25, they headed home on Dec. 27.

On Christmas Eve, the astronauts read from the Book of Genesis in a live telecast from the orbiter: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”

“Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit.”#RestInPeace Frank Borman, who explored the frontiers of space as one of the first three @NASA astronauts to orbit the Moon almost 55 years ago on Apollo 8.

We have lost a legend. https://t.co/ELnxOSRG15 pic.twitter.com/Yyhg7p59vM

— NASA History Office (@NASAhistory) November 9, 2023

Borman ended the broadcast with, “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.”

Lovell and Borman had previously flown together during the two-week Gemini 7 mission, which launched on Dec. 4, 1965 — and, at only 120 feet apart, completed the first space orbital rendezvous with Gemini 6.

“Gemini was a tough go,” Borman told The Associated Press in 1998. “It was smaller than the front seat of a Volkswagen bug. It made Apollo seem like a super-duper, plush touring bus.”

In his book, “Countdown: An Autobiography,” Borman said Apollo 8 was originally supposed to orbit Earth. The success of Apollo 7’s mission in October 1968 to show system reliability on long duration flights made NASA decide it was time to take a shot at flying to the moon.

In honour of a long, great life lived with grace, here is a clip of Frank Borman giving Gareth Dodds, David Fairhead and crew a friendly hard-time while shooting our movie 🎥 on Neil Armstrong. He was magnificent. Godspeed! pic.twitter.com/zfWw05KK0A

— Keith Haviland (@KeithHaviland) November 9, 2023

But Borman said there was another reason NASA changed the plan: the agency wanted to beat the Russians. Borman said he thought on orbit would suffice.

“My main concern in this whole flight was to get there ahead of the Russians and get home. That was a significant achievement in my eyes,” Borman said at a Chicago appearance in 2017.

It was on the crew’s fourth orbit that Anders snapped the iconic “Earthrise” photo showing a blue and white Earth rising above the gray lunar landscape.

RIP Frank Borman. You and the crew of Apollo 8 made Christmas ’68 a great one for our country & the world. After the Apollo 1 fire, you also masterfully defused & reassured a reluctant Congress that might have cancelled the program. Thank you, sir. https://t.co/nPs3k5cK6E

— Homer Hickam (@realhomerhickam) November 9, 2023

Borman wrote about how the Earth looked from afar: “We were the first humans to see the world in its majestic totality, an intensely emotional experience for each of us. We said nothing to each other, but I was sure our thoughts were identical — of our families on that spinning globe. And maybe we shared another thought I had, This must be what God sees.”