Frank Borman

Frank Frederick Borman, II (14 March 1928 - 7 November 2023) was a United States Air Force (USAF) colonel, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, businessman, rancher, and NASA astronaut. He was the commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, and together with crewmates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, became the first of 24 humans to do so, for which he was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Quotes



 * When you're finally up at the moon looking back on earth, all those differences and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend, and you're going to get a concept that maybe this really is one world and why the hell can't we learn to live together like decent people.
 * An interview in Newsweek magazine (23 December 1968)

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.'''
 * '''"God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."
 * Last lines of the Apollo 8 Genesis reading, and adding his own closing to the message from Apollo 8 crew, as they celebrated becoming the first humans to enter lunar orbit, Christmas Eve (24 December 1968)


 * Give us, O God, the vision which can see Your love in the world in spite of human failure. Give us the faith to trust Your goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts. And show us what each one of us can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace.
 * Prayer from Apollo 8, on Christmas Day (25 December 1968)


 * Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell.
 * The Growing Bankruptcy Brigade, Time magazine (18 October 1982)


 * A superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid situations which require the use of his superior skill.
 * Flying Lessons, Federal Aviation Administration (8 January 2008)


 * The Earth was the only thing in the world — in the universe — that had any color. Everything else was black and white but the earth was beautiful blue and white and brownish continents. That was the most impressive sight for me of the entire flight.
 * As quoted in "Apollo astronaut Frank Borman, who first orbited moon, dies at age 95", NPR (9 November 2023)

Countdown: An Autobiography (1988)

 * Co-written with Robert J. Serling


 * There was one more impression we wanted to transmit: our feeling of closeness to the Creator of all things. This was Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968, and I handed Jim and Bill their lines from the Holy Scriptures.
 * p. 214


 * This must be what God sees. I was absolutely awestruck, not so much at what we had accomplished but at what made the accomplishment possible. A machine produced by more than three hundred thousand Americans was circling the moon with three human beings aboard for the first time in history.
 * p. 454


 * Long before the moon mission, I had told NASA that Apollo 8 would be my last flight. It was a decision reached after a long talk with Susan, although the decision was strictly mine.
 * p. 222

Quotes about Borman

 * Borman had a Tolstoy quotation on a wall in his office: "The only legitimate happiness is honest hard work and the surmounting of obstacles."
 * "Frank Borman, astronaut who led Nasa’s Apollo 8 mission around the moon, dies aged 95", The Times (10 November 2023); Tolstoy quotation is from Tolstoy's Pacifism by Colm McKeogh, p. 83.