Three words to sum up a trajectory. Speaking of the death of Franck Borman, NASA boss Bill Nelson spoke of the astronaut as a “true American hero”. The former commander of the legendary Apollo 8 mission, the first to orbit the Moon, died at age 95 on Tuesday in Montana. Grieving, the American space agency announced the sad news in a press release on Thursday.
Passionate about aviation, Franck Borman has left his mark on the history of his country and space exploration. After an early career in the Air Force, marked by experience as a fighter pilot in the Philippines, the native of Gary (Indiana) was selected in 1962 to join NASA Group 2. Barely six years later, it will mark world space history.
A pioneer in space exploration
First feat of arms, in 1965. Borman went into space for the first time during the Gemini 7 mission, which lasted 14 days. This mission achieved the first space rendezvous, succeeding in coming within a few tens of centimeters of the Gemini 6 spacecraft. The astronaut then joined the Apollo program and the investigation committee after the fatal accident of Apollo 1. In 1967, during a rehearsal of a ground flight in real conditions, the spacecraft was blown up by a fire, which led to the death of three astronauts. This was to be Apollo’s first manned mission.
The program fell behind schedule and the Apollo 8 mission took off in December 1968, with Frank Borman and two other astronauts, James Lovell and William Anders, on board. It is the first manned mission to fly in orbit around the Moon. It was during this six-day exploration that William Anders was able to immortalize in photos the famous “Earthrise”. Less than a year after this mission, Neil Armstrong (Apollo 11) will be the first man to walk on the Moon.
Franck Borman’s service “within NASA and for our nation will undoubtedly inspire the Artemis generation to reach new cosmic shores,” said Bill Nelson. Since the retirement of this pioneer in 1970, the space agency has not let go of the Moon objective. NASA plans to return to the Moon with its Artemis program, successor to Apollo. The Artemis 2 mission is due to take off at the end of 2024 and circle the Moon with a crew on board, a mission compared to Apollo 8.
After the end of his space missions, Franck Borman returned to his first passion: aviation. He abandoned military flying to turn to commercial flights, becoming general manager of Eastern Air Lines in 1975. Entangled in a social crisis, he resigned a decade later, before settling down on a ranch in Montana. As a legacy, Franck Borman will leave his prowess, his research, and also this sentence: “Exploration is truly the essence of the human spirit”.
Saluting its pioneers is undeniably part of America’s strength. This week, by losing one myth, it strengthens another, that of the “true American hero”.