RIP - Frank Borman, Astronaut Who Led First Orbit of the Moon, Dies at 95

Former U.S. astronaut Frank Borman has died at the age of 95, NASA said on Thursday.

He commanded the 1968 Apollo 8 mission that carried three astronauts farther from Earth than anyone had ever travelled.

I'm old enough to remember Apollo 8 (December 21-27, 1968, the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times without landing, and then departed safely back to Earth. Three astronauts-Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders-were the first humans to witness and photograph the far side of the Moon and an Earthrise.

Born in Gary, Indiana, on March 14, 1928, he was the oldest American astronaut still living; that mantle now passes to Jim Lovell, who is also 95 but eleven days younger.

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