Frank Borman

Frank Borman, the commander of NASA’s 1968 Apollo 8 spaceflight, whose astronauts became the first men to orbit the moon, captured the famed image known as Earthrise and read lines from Genesis to deliver a brief Christmastime uplift to a troubled America, died on Tuesday November 7 2023 in Billings, Mont. He was 95. Borman retired from NASA and the Air Force in 1970, but he remained a national figure as the chairman of the financially troubled Eastern Airlines. He waged a long battle to cut labor and management costs before leaving Eastern in 1986, when it was taken over by Texas Air. Borman had graduated from West Point in 1950 and became an Air Force fighter pilot, but he was not assigned to combat in the Korean War. After receiving a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1957, he became a test pilot and helped develop spaceflight testing programs for future astronauts at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Borman lived in Las Cruces, N.M., after leaving Eastern. He became chairman of Patlex Corporation, a holder of patents on laser technology, and flew antique planes. He later moved to Billings, where he had a ranch.