Astronaut Frank Borman who led first flight to Moon dies at 95

Former NASA astronaut Frank Borman, who led the first Apollo 8 lunar mission in 1968, has died at the age of 95. Borman died in Billings, Montana on November 7. NASA confirms his death.

Borman was a member of NASA's second astronaut class and went into space twice. Apollo 8 was his second mission, during which he commanded the first crew to orbit the Moon. The mission launched on December 21, 1968, and Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders became the first astronauts to fly on the Saturn V, which was the most powerful rocket in the United States at the time. The third stage of the launch vehicle accelerated the Apollo 8 crew from 17,000 to 24,000 mph (27,000 to 39,000 km/h), the fastest speed that astronauts had traveled up to that point.

“The Saturn V was a unique vehicle,” Borman said in a landmark 1999 NASA interview. “It was powerful, noisy and vibrating. But when you get to the third stage, S-IVB, everything becomes smooth and quiet.”

Bormann and his two crewmates arrived on the Moon three days after leaving Earth. Apollo 8 entered an elliptical orbit and the crew came within 115 miles (185 kilometers) of the lunar surface. So Borman, Lovell and Anders became the first people to see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes. They made 10 circles around the satellite of our planet, and during the fourth they were able to see the “Earth rising.”

While in lunar orbit, the Apollo 8 crew took photographs that helped them select the locations where astronauts would later land on the Moon. Borman, Lovell and Anders left lunar orbit on Christmas Day and splashed down on December 27 in the Pacific Ocean, where the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown was waiting for them.

In addition to his role as crew chief for the Apollo 8 mission, Borman was also a Gemini 7 veteran and spent 14 days in low Earth orbit, as well as performing the first approach in space, coming within feet of the Gemini 6 spacecraft.

Note that before his death, Borman was considered the oldest living American astronaut, but now this title has gone to his teammate Lovell, who is 11 days younger. Apollo 8 was also the last of NASA's Apollo crews to survive.