Frank Borman
Frank Borman | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Borman in 1964 | |
| Born | Frank Frederick Borman II March 14, 1928 Gary, Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | November 7, 2023 (aged 95) Billings, Montana, U.S. |
Resting place | West Point Cemetery |
| Education | United States Military Academy (BS) California Institute of Technology (MS) |
| Spouse |
Susan Bugbee
(m. 1950; died 2021) |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | |
| Space career | |
| NASA astronaut | |
| Rank | Colonel, USAF |
Time in space | 19d 21h 35m |
| Selection | NASA Group 2 (1962) |
| Missions | Gemini 7 Apollo 8 |
Mission insignia |   |
| Retirement | July 1, 1970 |
| Signature | |
 | |
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 28 humans to do so, for which he was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Four days before he graduated with the West Point Class of 1950, in which he was ranked eighth out of 670, Borman was commissioned in the USAF. He qualified as a fighter pilot and served in the Philippines. He earned a Master of Science degree at Caltech in 1957, and then became an assistant professor of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics at West Point. In 1960, he was selected for Class 60-C at the USAF Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California and qualified as a test pilot. On graduation, he was accepted as one of five students in the first class at the Aerospace Research Pilot School.
Borman was selected as a NASA astronaut with the second group, known as the Next Nine, in 1962. In 1966, he set a fourteen-day spaceflight endurance record as commander of Gemini 7. He served on the NASA review board which investigated the Apollo 1 fire, and then flew to the Moon with Apollo 8 in December 1968. The mission is known for the Earthrise photograph taken by Anders of the Earth rising above the lunar horizon as the Command/Service Module orbited the Moon, and for the reading from Genesis, which was televised to Earth from lunar orbit on Christmas Eve. During the Apollo 11 Moon landing mission, he was the NASA liaison at the White House, where he viewed the launch on television with President Richard Nixon.
After retiring from NASA and the Air Force in 1970, Borman became senior vice president for operations at Eastern Air Lines. He became chief executive officer of Eastern in 1975, and chairman of the board in 1976. 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. He moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where he ran a Ford dealership with his son, Fred. In 1998, they bought a cattle ranch in Bighorn, Montana.
Early life and education
[edit]Frank Frederick Borman II was born on March 14, 1928, at 2162 West 11th Avenue in Gary, Indiana,[1] the only child of Edwin Otto Borman, who owned an Oldsmobile car dealership there, and his wife Marjorie Ann Borman (née Pearce), who named him after his paternal grandfather. He was of German descent.[2] His great-grandfather Christopher Borman immigrated from Germany in the late 19th century and worked as a tuba player in a traveling circus.[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. His father bought a lease on a Mobil service station.[2]
Borman attended Sam Hughes Elementary School in Tucson,[4] where he played soccer and baseball. He then went to Mansfeld Junior High School, where he tried out for the football team. He was not good enough, so he formed his own team with some local boys, sponsored by a local jewelry store. He earned some money with a newspaper route, delivering copies of the Arizona Daily Star.[2]
After Mansfeld, Borman went on to Tucson High School, where he was an honor student. He played quarterback on the junior varsity team, and then became the second-string quarterback on the varsity team. The first-string quarterback broke his arm during the first game, and was out for most of the season. Although every one of the four forward passes he attempted that year was incomplete, the team went on to win the state championship. He also started dating Susan Bugbee, a sophomore at his school.[5][6]
After the United States entered World War II in 1941, his parents found work at a new Consolidated Vultee aircraft factory in Tucson.[2] His first ride in an airplane had been when he was five years old.[2] He learned to fly at the age of 15,[7] taking lessons with a female instructor, Bobbie Kroll, at Gilpin Field. When he obtained his student pilot certificate, he joined a local flying club.[8] He also built model airplanes out of balsa wood.[9]
Borman was helping a friend build model planes, when his friend's father asked him about his plans for the future. Borman told him that he wanted to go to college and study aeronautical engineering, but his parents did not have the money to send him to an out-of-state university, and neither the University of Arizona nor Arizona State University offered top-notch courses in aeronautical engineering at that time. His football skills were insufficient to secure an athletic scholarship, and he lacked the political connections to secure an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. He therefore planned to join the Army, which would allow him to qualify for free college tuition under the G.I. Bill.[9]
His friend's father told him that he knew Richard F. Harless, the congressman who represented Arizona. Harless already had a principal nominee for West Point, but Borman's friend's father convinced Harless to list Borman as a third alternative. Borman took the West Point entrance examination, but since his chances of a West Point appointment were slim, he also took the Army physical, and passed both. But the end of the war had changed attitudes towards joining the military, and the three nominees ahead of him all dropped out. Instead of reporting to Fort MacArthur on graduation from high school, he went to West Point.[9][6]
Borman entered West Point on July 1, 1946, with the Class of 1950.[10] It was a difficult year to enter. Many members of the class were older than he, and had seen active service in World War II. Hazing by the upperclassmen was common. Another challenge was learning how to swim. He tried out for the plebe football team; his skills were insufficient, but head coach Earl Blaik took him on as an assistant manager.[11] In his final year, Borman was a cadet captain, commanding his company, and manager of the varsity football team.[12]
Borman chose to be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force (USAF) on June 2, 1950.[10] Before the United States Air Force Academy was built, the USAF was authorized to accept up to a quarter of each West Point graduating class.[13] So that USAF officers graduating from West Point had equal seniority with those graduating from the United States Naval Academy, the entire class was commissioned four days ahead of their graduation. Borman graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree on June 6, 1950, ranked eighth in his class of 670.[10]
Borman drove back to Tucson with his parents in his brand-new Oldsmobile 88 for the traditional sixty-day furlough after graduation. He had split up with Susan while he was at West Point, but had since reconsidered. She had earned a dental hygiene degree at the University of Pennsylvania, and was planning to commence a liberal arts degree at the University of Arizona. He persuaded her to see him again, and proposed to her. She accepted, and they were married on July 20, 1950, at St. Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church in Tucson.[14]
Air Force
[edit]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. The top students in the class had the privilege of choosing which branch of flying they would pursue; Borman elected to become a fighter pilot.[15] He was therefore sent to Williams Air Force Base, near Phoenix, in February 1951 for advanced training,[16] initially in the North American T-28 Trojan, and then the F-80 jet fighter. Fighter pilots were being sent to Korea, where the Korean War had broken out the year before. He asked for, and was assigned to, Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix—Susan was eight months pregnant—but at the last minute his orders were changed to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. There, he practiced aerial bombing and gunnery. His first child, a son called Frederick Pearce, was born there in October. Borman received his pilot wings on December 4, 1951.[17]
Soon after, Borman suffered a perforated eardrum while practicing dive bombing with a bad head cold. Instead of going to Korea, he was ordered to report to Camp Stoneman, whence he boarded a troop transport, the USNS Fred C. Ainsworth on December 20, 1951, bound for the Philippines. Susan sold the Oldsmobile to buy air tickets to join him. He was assigned to the 44th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, which was based at Clark Air Base, and commanded by Major Charles McGee, a veteran fighter pilot. Initially, Borman was restricted to non-flying duties due to his eardrum; although it had healed, the base doctors feared it would rupture again if he flew. He persuaded McGee to take him for flights in a T-6, and then a Lockheed T-33, the trainer version of the Shooting Star. This convinced the doctors, and Borman's flight status was restored on September 22, 1952.[18] His second son, Edwin Sloan, was born at Clark in July 1952.[19]
Borman returned to the United States, where he became a jet instrument flight instructor at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, mainly in the T-33. In 1955, he secured a transfer to Luke Air Force Base. Most of his flying was in F-80s, F-84s, swept-wing F-84Fs and T-33s.[20] In 1956, he received orders to join the faculty at West Point, after first completing a master's degree in aeronautical engineering. Not wanting to spend two years qualifying for a non-flying posting that could last for another three years, he searched for a master's degree course that took only one year, and settled on the one at the California Institute of Technology. He received his Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering in June 1957,[21] and then became an assistant professor of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics at West Point, where he served until 1960.[22] He found he enjoyed teaching, and was still able to fly a T-33 from Stewart Air Force Base on weekends.[21] One summer he also attended the USAF Survival School at Stead Air Force Base in Nevada.[23]
In June 1960, Borman was selected for Class 60-C at the USAF Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California, and became a test pilot. His class, which included Michael Collins and James B. Irwin, who also later became astronauts, graduated on April 21, 1961.[24] Thomas P. Stafford, another future astronaut, was one of the instructors.[25] On graduation, Borman was accepted as one of five students in the first class at the Aerospace Research Pilot School, a postgraduate school for test pilots to prepare them to become astronauts. Fellow members of the class included future astronaut Jim McDivitt.[26] 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. Borman began training with the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. It would be flown up to 70,000 feet (21,000 m), where the engine would cut out for lack of oxygen, and then coast up to 90,000 feet (27,000 m). This would be followed by a powerless descent, and restarting the engine on the way down. A pressure suit was required.[27]
On April 18, 1962, NASA formally announced that it was accepting applications for a new group of astronauts who would assist the Mercury Seven astronauts selected in 1959 with Project Mercury, and join them in flying Project Gemini missions.[28] The USAF conducted its own internal selection process, and submitted the names of eleven candidates.[29] It ran them through a brief training course in May 1962 on how to speak and conduct themselves during the NASA selection process. The candidates called it a "charm school".[30] Borman's selection as one of the Next Nine was publicly announced on September 17, 1962.[31][32] Chuck Yeager, the commandant of the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards, told him: "you can kiss your godamned Air Force career goodbye."[33] During his Air Force service, Borman logged 3,600 hours of flying time, of which 3,000 was in jet aircraft.[23]
NASA
[edit]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 $282,000 in 2025).[34] 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.[35] Borman's assignment was the Titan II booster used by Project Gemini, although he had no experience in that area.[36] The assignment involved many trips to the Martin Marietta plants in Denver, Colorado, and Baltimore, Maryland, where the Titan IIs were built. His responsibility included the Emergency Detection System (EDS) developed for an abort situation. Borman agreed with Wernher von Braun that reliance would have to be placed on automated systems in situations where human reaction time would not be fast enough. This was much to the consternation of old hands like Warren J. North,[37] the NASA Chief of the Flight Crew Support Division,[38] who did not accept the notion that an automated system was superior to the skill of a human being.[37]
There was also classroom work. Initially, each of the astronauts was given four months of classroom instruction on subjects such as spacecraft propulsion, orbital mechanics, astronomy, computing, and space medicine. There was also familiarization with the Gemini spacecraft, Titan II and Atlas boosters, and the Agena target vehicle.[39] Jungle survival training was conducted at the USAF Tropic Survival School at Albrook Air Force Station in Panama, desert survival training at Stead Air Force Base in Nevada, and water survival training on the Dilbert Dunker at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida and on Galveston Bay.[40] There were fifty hours of instruction in geology, with field trips to the Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater in Arizona. Borman thought it was a waste of time.[41] "I didn't care about picking up rocks," he later told an interviewer, "I wanted to beat the Soviets to the Moon".[42]
Project Gemini
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When the Chief of the Flight Crew Operations, Mercury Seven astronaut Deke Slayton, drew up a tentative schedule of Project Gemini flights, he assigned Mercury Seven astronaut Alan Shepard command of the first crewed flight, Gemini 3, with Next Nine astronaut Tom Stafford as his co-pilot. Mercury Seven astronaut Gus Grissom would command the backup crew, with Borman as his co-pilot. Under the crew rotation system Slayton devised, the backup crew of one mission would become the prime of the third mission after. Borman would therefore become the co-pilot of Gemini 6, which was planned as a long-duration fourteen-day mission.[43]
An Apollo mission to the Moon was expected to take at least a week,[44] 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.[45] When Shepard was grounded in October 1963, Grissom and Borman became the prime crew of Gemini 3.[43] Grissom invited Borman to his house to talk to him about the mission, and after a long discussion, decided that he could not work with Borman.[36] According to Gene Cernan, "the egos of Grissom and Borman were too big to fit into a single spacecraft".[46] Slayton therefore replaced Borman with John Young.[43]
Slayton still wanted Borman for the two-week flight, which had now slipped to Gemini 7, so Borman was assigned as backup commander of Gemini 4, with Jim Lovell as his co-pilot.[43] This was officially announced on July 27, 1964,[47] and their assignment to Gemini 7 followed on July 1, 1965, with Ed White and Michael Collins as their backups.[48] Borman was one of four members of his group chosen to command their first missions, the others being McDivitt, Neil Armstrong, and Elliot See,[49] although See was killed in a jet crash three months before his mission.[50] Prime and backup crews trained for the mission together, and Borman found the experience as a backup valuable, amounting to a dress rehearsal of their own mission.[51]
That Gemini 7 would last for fourteen days was known from the beginning, and gave Borman time to prepare. To keep fit, he and Lovell jogged 2 to 3 miles (3 to 5 km) a day, and played handball after work. They visited the McDonnell Aircraft plant in St. Louis, Missouri, where their spacecraft was built. At 8,076 pounds (3,663 kg), it was 250 pounds (110 kg) heavier than any previous Gemini spacecraft.[51] Special procedures were developed for the stowage of consumables and garbage. A lightweight space suit was developed to make the astronauts more comfortable.[52]
A major change affecting the mission occurred when the Agena target vehicle for Gemini 6 suffered a catastrophic failure. This mission was intended to practice orbital rendezvous, a requirement of Project Apollo and therefore an objective of Project Gemini. Borman was at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to observe the launch of Gemini 6, and heard two McDonnell officials, spacecraft chief Walter Burke and his deputy, John Yardley, discuss the possibility of using Gemini 7 as a rendezvous target. Borman rejected the idea of docking the two spacecraft, but otherwise thought the idea had merit.[53]
After some discussion about how it could be accomplished, it was approved. The 6555th Aerospace Test Wing dismantled Gemini 6 and assembled Gemini 7 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 19. Gemini 7 was launched at 14:30 local time on December 6, 1965.[54] Then the race was on to launch Gemini 6 with Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford on board, which was accomplished at 08:37 local time on December 15.[55] Gemini 6 completed the rendezvous with Gemini 7 at 14:33. The two craft came within 12 inches (30 cm) of each other.[56] At one point Schirra held up a sign in the window for Borman to read that said: "Beat Army". Schirra, Stafford and Lovell were all United States Naval Academy graduates; Borman was outnumbered.[57]
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When Schirra and Stafford pulled away and returned to Earth, Borman and Lovell still had three days to go, in a space the size of the front seat of a small car. Borman began hoping that something would go wrong and excuse an early return. Finally, on December 18, it was time to return. The two astronauts were pumped up with the help of the stimulant dexedrine. 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. Borman had never been on an aircraft carrier before, and was awed by its size.[58] Borman was awarded the NASA Exceptional Service Medal for this mission,[59][60] and was promoted to colonel. At 37, he was the youngest full colonel in the Air Force.[61]
Project Apollo
[edit]Apollo 1
[edit]In planning for Project Apollo, Slayton designated new crews under the command of the experienced astronauts who commanded the early Gemini missions. On missions with a lunar module, the senior pilot (later known as the command module pilot) would also be an experienced astronaut, as he would have to fly the command module solo. Borman was given the assignment of backup for the second mission, an Earth-orbital mission without a lunar module. He would then command the fourth, a medium Earth orbit mission with a lunar module. He was given Charles Bassett for a senior pilot and Bill Anders as the pilot (later known as the lunar module pilot);[62][63] Bassett was expected to fly on Gemini 9, but he died in the air crash that also killed See.[49] Borman was then given Stafford as senior pilot and Collins as pilot.[64] Subsequently, Stafford was given his own crew, and Anders was reassigned to Borman's crew. As Collins had spaceflight experience on Gemini 10, he became the senior pilot.[65] The second mission was scrubbed, but Borman's remained unchanged, although now it was to be the third mission, and he had no backup responsibility.[62][63] The crew selection was officially announced in a NASA press release on December 22, 1966.[66]
On January 27, 1967, the crew members of the first crewed Apollo mission (Apollo 1 — then designated AS-204), Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger B. Chaffee, were killed in a fire aboard their command module. Following this deadly accident, the AS-204 Accident Review Board was charged with investigating the root causes of the fire and recommending corrective measures. Borman was chosen as the only astronaut to serve on the nine-member review board. He inspected the burnt-out command module and verified the positions of the switches and circuit breakers.[67] In April 1967, while serving on the board, Borman was one of five astronauts who testified before the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate committees investigating the Apollo 1 fire (the others were Shepard, Schirra, Slayton and McDivitt). Borman faced tough and sometimes hostile questioning.[68][69] Borman's testimony helped convince Congress that Apollo would be safe to fly again.[70] He told them: "We are trying to tell you that we are confident in our management, and in our engineering and in ourselves. I think the question is really: Are you confident in us?"[70]
In the aftermath of the disaster, Joe Shea resigned as manager of the Apollo project. Robert Gilruth, the director of the MSC, offered the position to Borman, who turned it down. 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. Borman was forced to confront one of the root causes of the disaster: the natural tension between getting the job done on time and building the spacecraft as well as possible.[71]
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. Borman refused to accept the design because it did not protect the crew from noxious fumes. Crossfield then opposed the delivery of North American's S-II, the second stage of the Saturn V Moon rocket, which Crossfield deemed unsafe. Borman informed management at North American that he could not work with Crossfield, and Crossfield eventually left the company. A redesigned hatch that allowed the astronauts to exit within seconds instead of minutes added 1,500 pounds (680 kg) to the weight of the spacecraft. The parachutes had to be redesigned to ensure they could hold the additional weight, and re-testing them cost $250,000. This led to a clash with George Mueller, who thought the cost was excessive.[71]
Apollo 8
[edit]
Borman's medium Earth orbit lunar module test mission was now planned as Apollo 9, and tentatively scheduled for early 1969, after a low Earth orbit one commanded by McDivitt in December 1968. The crew assignments were officially announced on November 20, 1967,[72] but in July 1968 Collins suffered a cervical disc herniation that required surgery to repair. He was replaced by Lovell in July 1968, reuniting Borman with his Gemini 7 crewmate.[73] 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.[74]
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,[75] George Low proposed a bold solution to keep the Apollo program on track. Since the next Command/Service Module (CSM) (designated as "CSM-103") would be ready three months before LM-3, a CSM-only mission could be flown in December 1968. Instead of repeating the flight of Apollo 7, it could be sent to the Moon, entering lunar orbit before returning to Earth. This also meant that the medium Earth orbit mission could be dispensed with, keeping to the schedule for a lunar landing in mid-1969.