Frank Borman Frank Frederick Borman , II ( born March 14 , 1928 ) is a retired NASA astronaut , best remembered as the Commander of Apollo 8 , the first mission to fly around the Moon , making him , along with crew mates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders , the first of only 24 humans to do so . Before flying on Apollo , he set a fourteen - day spaceflight endurance record on Gemini 7 , and also served on the NASA review board which investigated the Apollo 1 fire . After leaving NASA , he was the chief executive officer ( CEO ) of Eastern Air Lines from 1975 to 1986 . Borman is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor . In the HBO miniseries " From the Earth to the Moon " , Borman was played by David Andrews . Early career . Borman was born in Gary , Indiana , where the Frank Borman Expressway is named after him . Because he suffered from numerous sinus problems in the cold and damp weather , his father packed up the family and moved to the better climate of Tucson , Arizona , which Borman considers his home town . He started to fly at the age of 15 . He is a graduate of the Tucson High School . He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1950 where he served as an Army Football Manager , and along with part of his graduating class , he entered the United States Air Force ( USAF ) and became a fighter pilot . He received his Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1957 . Later , Borman was selected for the Aerospace Research Pilot School and became a test pilot . NASA career . Project Gemini . Borman was selected by NASA for the second NASA astronaut group in 1962 , and was chosen as the Command Pilot for Gemini 7 . He was one of just four of this group chosen to command their first Gemini missions , the others being James McDivitt , Neil Armstrong , and Elliot See . ( See was killed in a T - 38 trainer jet crash three months before his mission . Astronauts Gerald Carr and Joe Engle , selected later , also commanded their first space flights . ) Borman flew Gemini 7 in December 1965 with Pilot James A . Lovell , Jr . This was a long - endurance flight which set a fourteen - day record , and also acted as the target vehicle in the first space rendezvous performed by Gemini 6A . The two craft came within one foot ( 30 centimeters ) of each other and they took turns flying around each other , taking both still and motion pictures . Apollo Program . Borman was selected in late 1966 to command the third manned Apollo mission , planned as an elliptical medium Earth orbit test of the second manned Lunar Module ( LM ) on the first manned launch of the Saturn V lunar rocket sometime in 1967 or early 1968 . But in January 1967 , the crew of the first manned Apollo mission , Virgil I . " Gus " Grissom , Ed White , and Roger B . Chaffee were killed in a cabin fire aboard their Apollo 1 Command Module , also designated AS - 204 . Borman was chosen as the only astronaut to serve on the AS - 204 Accident Review Board , charged with investigating the root causes of the fire and recommending corrective measures . In April 1967 , while serving on the board , Borman was one of five astronauts who testified before a United States Senate committee investigating the Apollo 1 fire . His testimony helped convince Congress that Apollo would be safe to fly again . Borman was then reassigned to his LM test mission , now planned to fly as " Apollo 9 " in early 1969 after a first , low Earth orbit LM flight commanded by McDivitt in December 1968 . But the LM was not ready for its first flight , leading NASA management to decide to replace Borman ' s mission with a lunar orbit flight using just the Command / Service Module as Apollo 8 in December , making McDivitt ' s flight Apollo 9 in March 1969 . Borman ' s " Lunar Module Pilot " ( and spacecraft systems engineer ) was William Anders . The Command Module Pilot and navigator , Michael Collins , had to have back surgery and was replaced by his backup , James Lovell , reuniting Borman with his Gemini 7 crewmate . Apollo 8 went into lunar orbit on December 24 and made ten orbits of the Moon in 20 hours before returning to Earth . The success of Apollo 8 avoided jeopardizing the goal of making the first manned Moon landing by the end of 1969 by not waiting for the delayed LM , and also provided invaluable experience in navigation to the Moon . Space journalist Andrew Chaikin claims that , following the death of Gus Grissom , Borman became astronaut chief Deke Slayton ' s choice to command the first Moon landing attempt . In the fall of 1968 Slayton offered command of the first landing to Borman , who turned it down , choosing to retire instead . Eastern Air Lines . In early 1969 , Borman became a special advisor to Eastern Airlines and after retiring from NASA and the U . S . Air Force in 1970 , he was made Senior Vice President - Operations Group at the airline company . He was later promoted to Executive Vice President - General Operations Manager and was elected to Eastern Airlines ' s Board of Directors in July 1974 . In May 1975 , Borman was elected President and Chief Operating Officer . He was named Chief Executive Officer of Eastern Airlines in December 1975 and became Chairman of the Board in December 1976 . After Borman became Eastern Airlines ' s CEO , it went through the four most profitable years in the company ' s history . However , in 1983 , contentious battles with labor unions , particularly the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers ( IAM ) led the company to abandon several profitable programs and the resulting losses led to the sale of the airline to Texas Air Corporation , headed by Frank Lorenzo . Borman retired from Eastern Airlines in June 1986 . An IAM strike and intransigence by the IAM Union forced Eastern into bankruptcy in 1989 , followed by liquidation in 1991 . Retirement . Borman returned to Tucson , Arizona , to reside , and as of 2006 has been living in Las Cruces , New Mexico , where he enjoys rebuilding and flying airplanes from the World War II and Korean War era . Today , he is a member of the Society of Antique Modelers ( SAM ) . Borman gave the Commencement Address to the graduating class of 2008 at the University of Arizona . For a time during his retirement , Borman was the majority holder of a Chevrolet dealership founded by his son Fred . Borman has since appeared in the documentary " " . On November 13 , 2008 , Borman and fellow Apollo 8 crewmembers Jim Lovell and Bill Anders appeared on the NASA TV channel to discuss the Apollo 8 mission . Borman currently resides with his wife Susan in Bighorn , Montana . They had two sons , Edwin and Frederick . Quotes . " There ' s no question that it was a coffin , and I ' d have flown it gladly . " — Public comment on the hazardous design and construction of the Apollo Command Module , during 1967 congressional testimony after serving on the AS - 204 Accident Review Board . At the time , Borman was scheduled to command the third manned flight of the Apollo spacecraft . He coordinated the redesign effort to improve the safety of the spacecraft . " Had that rocket not fired , I ' d still be orbiting the Moon . Forever . And I really didn ' t want to do that . " — Spoken of the Apollo 8 mission during the documentary " " " I ' ve long said that capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without Hell . But it ' s hard to see any good news in this . " — as chairman of Eastern Airlines