OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — An Apollo 8 astronaut is being honored at a new EAA exhibit.
Frank Borman, commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to orbit the moon, is also a lifetime EAA member.
“The Borman Collection: An EAA Member’s Space Odyssey” opened Friday, in honor of the Apollo 8 astronaut.
He was honored with a ribbon-cutting at his new exhibit.
It has hundreds of artifacts from his space missions, as well as his awards and correspondence with world-leaders over the years.
Before his NASA career, he served in the U.S. Air Force.
“My first love is always airplanes and aviation, and I think that EAA is responsible for the fact that we still have a robust general aviation industry in this country,” said Borman.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8, Borman and fellow astronaut Jim Lovell were special guests at the Wright Brothers Memorial Banquet Friday night at EAA.
It’s been 50 years since the first human flight to the moon, but Borman, can still remember what he was thinking T- minus seconds before launch.
“My major concern was that the mission be done perfectly and that crew not screw up, so I was focused totally on a successful mission. That’s what was going through my mid the whole time,” Borman recounted.
Borman and his crew were the first, but certainly not the last, to make it to the moon and back.
Within four years of Apollo 8’s astronauts orbiting the moon, six successful Apollo missions saw others land on it, with the last being in December of 1972.
“The Apollo program is a battle and a cold war, and we made an enormous effort, and we won. But, one of the problems with having a specific objective is when you win, it sort of ends it,” said Borman.
But back on solid ground and years later, how obtainable does the moon look now to Borman from Earth?
“We never had a cohesive program since, to go back to the moon, but it appears now that they’re getting ready to go back, which I support,” Borman said.
It was once hard to believe they put a man on the moon, but it happened and Frank Borman played a huge role in that victory.
Accomplishing life on Mars, however, is a different story to the former astronaut.
“The idea of communities and colonies is completely unrealistic,” Borman says.
Others are a bit more optimistic, though.
Retired Captain Dennis Hopkins of the U.S. Navy said, “John F. Kennedy said we’re going to put a man on the moon, or a person on the moon now, in less than 10 years, and we did it! It’s inconceivable that someday that it won’t happen.”
Borman and Lovell both spoke at the banquet and were interviewed in a panel discussion held there.
Event organizers say the event was completely sold out.
