Frank Frederick Borman II (March 14, 1928 – November 7, 2023) was an American United States Air Force (USAF) colonel, aeronautical engineer, NASA astronaut, test pilot, and businessman.

He was the commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, and together with crewmates Jim Lovell and William Anders, became the first of 24 humans to do so, for which he was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Under his leadership, Eastern went through the four most profitable years in its history, but airline deregulation and the additional debt that it took on to purchase new aircraft led to pay cuts and layoffs, and ultimately to conflict with unions, resulting in his resignation in 1986.

[3] Because he suffered from numerous sinus and mastoid problems in the cold and damp weather, his family moved to the better climate of Tucson, Arizona, which Borman considered his hometown.

[13] After a brief honeymoon in Phoenix, Arizona, Borman reported to Perrin Air Force Base in Texas for basic flight training in a North American T-6 Texan in August 1950.

He received his Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering in June 1957,[20] and then became an assistant professor of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics at West Point, where he served until 1960.

[25] Classes included a course on orbital mechanics at the University of Michigan, and there were zero-G flights in modified Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker and Convair C-131 Samaritan aircraft.

[30][31] Chuck Yeager, the commandant of the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards, told him: "you can kiss your godamned Air Force career goodbye.

[22] Borman moved with his family to Houston, Texas, where the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) was still being established, and signed his first home construction contract, for $26,500 (equivalent to $267,000 in 2023).

[33] Following the precedent set by the Mercury Seven, each of the Nine was assigned a special area in which to develop expertise that could be shared with the others, and to provide astronaut input to the designers and engineers.

North,[36] the NASA Chief of the Flight Crew Support Division,[37] who did not accept the notion that an automated system was superior to the skill of a human being.

[42] An Apollo mission to the Moon was expected to take at least a week,[43] so one of the objectives of Project Gemini was to test the ability of the crew and spacecraft components to operate in space for that length of time.

The re-entry was accomplished flawlessly, and the Gemini 7 spacecraft splashed down 6.4 miles (10.3 km) from the recovery vessel, the aircraft carrier USS Wasp.

The job was given to Gilruth's deputy, George Low; Borman accepted a temporary posting to the North American Aviation plant in Downey, California, where the command modules were made, to oversee the implementation of the recommendations of the AS-204 Accident Review Board.

[70] Borman argued with test pilot Scott Crossfield, who was in charge of safety engineering at North American, over the design of an effective emergency oxygen system.

[72] When Apollo 8's LM-3 arrived at the KSC in June 1968, more than a hundred significant defects were discovered, leading Gilruth to conclude that there was no prospect of LM-3 being ready to fly in 1968.

[73] In August 1968, in response to a report from the CIA that the Soviet Union were considering a lunar fly-by before the end of the year,[74] Low proposed a bold solution to keep the Apollo program on track.

[83][84] About six weeks before the launch, NASA's deputy director for public affairs, Julian Scheer, had told Borman that a television broadcast was scheduled for this time, and suggested that they find something appropriate to say.

Bourgin, in turn, consulted Joe Laitin, a former United Press International reporter, who suggested that the Apollo 8 crew read from the Book of Genesis after his wife Christine had come up with the idea.

"[96] The crew were accorded ticker tape parades in New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., where they were awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, which was presented by President Lyndon B.

[101] Space journalist Andrew Chaikin claims that, following the death of Gus Grissom, Borman became Slayton's choice to command the first Moon landing attempt.

[104] Nixon initially had prepared a long speech to read to the astronauts on the Moon during a phone call, but Borman persuaded him to keep his words brief and non-partisan.

He also convinced the President to omit the playing of the "Star Spangled Banner", which would have required the astronauts to waste two and a half minutes of their time on the surface standing still.

[100] In August 1970, he undertook another special presidential mission, a worldwide tour to seek support for the release of American prisoners of war held by North Vietnam.

[110] On September 22, he appeared before an unusual joint meeting of Congress conducted at the request of the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia in his capacity as presidential envoy.

[115][117] On the evening of December 29, 1972, Borman received a phone call informing him that Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 had disappeared off the radar near Florida's Everglades.

[117] To reduce costs, Borman convinced employees to accept a wage freeze in 1976, with an eight percent raise in 1977, and then a five-year Variable Earnings Program (VEP).

The company's debt-to-equity ratio stood at 8:1, and servicing the debt required $235 million annually in interest payments, representing about 6+1⁄2 cents in every dollar earned.

[117][128] He was a member of the boards of directors of Home Depot, National Geographic, Outboard Marine Corporation, Automotive Financial Group, Thermo Instrument Systems and American Superconductor.

[141] Borman gave the commencement address to the University of Arizona's 2008 graduating class,[142] and was reunited with Lovell and Anders for celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8 in December 2018 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, where the spacecraft in which they orbited the Moon is on display.