Frank Borman
1928-
Official NASA portrait for Project Gemini.
Born in 1928 in Gary, Indiana, Frank Borman joined
the Air Force in
1950. After working for the Air Force as a test pilot for over a
decade,
Borman was selected into the second astronaut group (the "Next Nine")
in
1962.
Frank Borman's first mission was the two-week
marathon of Gemini VII.
He and fellow astronaut Jim Lovell orbited
the Earth for fourteen days,
while the Gemini VI mission used them as a rendezvous target. The
highlight
of the mission came when the Gemini VI spacecraft rendezvoused with
Gemini VII and flew in formation with them for several hours.
On January 27, 1967, a fire broke out in the Apollo
1 spacecraft on
the pad during a countdown demonstration test, killing all three
astronauts
inside. In the wake of the disaster, Frank Borman was placed on the
investigative
committee to determine the cause of the accident. The committee found
that
the fire was the result of a number of factors, including NASA's
pressuring
North American to complete the Apollo CSM,
and North American's lack of
documentation on changes to the spacecraft.
Borman's last flight was as commander of the Apollo
8 mission. He and
Bill Anders and Jim Lovell orbited the moon ten times on Christmas Eve
and Christmas Day. They were the first men to fly to and orbit the moon.
Frank Borman now lives and works in Las Cruces, New
Mexico. He still flies airplanes, including a modification of a P-51
Mustang known as the TF-51.