Borman & Lovell Celebrate 90th Birthdays
Apollo 8 crew members William Anders, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell on the carrier after their mission. (Credit: NASA)
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
Parabolic Arc would like to extend belated birthday wishes to Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, who both celebrated their 90th birthdays this month. Lovell’s birthday was Sunday, and Borman celebrated his latest trip around the sun on March 14.
The two nonagenarians, who were crew mates on Gemini 7 and Apollo 8, are the oldest of the surviving Apollo astronauts. The rest of their compatriots are all in the 80’s.
Borman and Lovell spent nearly 14 days aloft aboard Gemini 7 in December 1965. The flight proved that astronauts could survive trips to the moon and back. During the flight, the spacecraft rendezvoused and flew in formation with Gemini 6, which was piloted by Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford. The rendezvous was also a first for human spaceflight.
Borman and Lovell teamed up again in December 1968 for the first manned voyage to the moon. Along with Apollo 8 crew mate William Anders, the astronauts made 10 orbits above the lunar surface, paving the way for eventual moon landings.
The mission proved to be the last spaceflights for Borman and Anders. Lovell would go on to command the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, which had to abort a landing in the Frau Mauro highlands due to an explosion in the service module. Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert used the lunar module as a lifeboat.
Borman and Lovell were not the only Apollo astronauts who celebrated another year on planet Earth. The others were:
- March 15 — Alan Bean, Apollo 12 & Skylab 3 — 86
- March 16 — Walt Cunningham, Apollo 7 — 86
- March 17 — Ken Mattingly, Apollo 16 — 82.
The table below shows the Apollo crews who flew in the lunar, Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz programs. Although some astronauts died relatively young, many of them survived into their 80’s — a tribute to the superb conditioning required by NASA and the military services in which they served.
Of the 12 men to walk on the moon, five are still alive: Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11), Bean (Apollo 12), David Scott (Apollo 15), Charlie Duke (Apollo 16), and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt (Apollo 17).
| APOLLO, SKYLAB & APOLLO-SOYUZ MISSIONS | |||||
| MISSION | OBJECTIVES |
CREW |
BORN | DIED |
AGE |
| Apollo 1 |
Test command service module in Earth orbit; crew died in a flash fire that swept through the command module during a practice countdown | Virgil “Gus” Grissom | April 3, 1926 | January 27, 1967 | d. 40 |
| Edward White | October 14, 1930 | January 27, 1967 | d. 36 | ||
| Roger Chaffee | February 15, 1935 | January 27, 1967 | d. 31 | ||
| Apollo 7 Oct. 11-22 1968 |
Test command service module in Earth orbit | Wally Schirra | March 12, 1923 | May 3, 2007 | d. 84 |
| Donn Eisele | June 23, 1930 | December 2, 1987 | d. 57 | ||
| Walt Cunningham | March 16, 1932 | — | 86 | ||
| Apollo 8 Dec. 21-27 1968 |
First human voyage to the moon; 10 orbits above the lunar surface | Frank Borman | March 14, 1928 | — | 90 |
| Jim Lovell | March 25, 1928 | — | 90 | ||
| Bill Anders | October 17, 1933 | — | 84 | ||
| Apollo 9 March 3-13 1969 |
Test command service module and lunar module in Earth orbit | James A. McDivitt | June 10, 1929 | — | 88 |
| David R. Scott | June 6, 1932 | — | 85 | ||
| Russell L. Schweickart | October 25, 1935 | — | 82 | ||
| Apollo 10 May 18-26 1969 |
Dress rehearsal for first human landing on the moon; lunar module flew within 50,000 feet of lunar surface | Tom Stafford | September 17, 1930 | — | 87 |
| John Young | September 24, 1930 | Jan. 5, 2018 | d. 87 | ||
| Eugene Cernan | March 14, 1934 | Jan. 16, 2017 | d. 82 | ||
| Apollo 11 July 16-24 1969 |
First manned moon landing on Sea of Tranquility; Armstrong and Aldrin spent more than two hours walking on the surface | Neil Armstrong | August 5, 1930 | August 25, 2012 | d. 82 |
| Buzz Aldrin | January 20, 1930 | — | 88 | ||
| Michael Collins | October 31, 1930 | — | 87 | ||
| Apollo 12 Nov. 14-24 1969 |
Second manned landing on the moon; recovered part of Surveyor 3 lander | Charles “Pete” Conrad | June 2, 1930 | July 8, 1999 | d. 69 |
| Alan Bean | March 15, 1932 | — | 86 | ||
| Dick Gordon | October 5, 1929 | Nov. 6, 2017 | d. 88 | ||
| Apollo 13 April 11-17 1970 |
Landing in Fra Mauro aborted due to explosion in service module oxygen tank | Jim Lovell | March 25, 1928 | — | 90 |
| Fred Haise | November 14, 1933 | — | 84 | ||
| Jack Swigert | August 30, 1931 | December 27, 1982 | d. 51 | ||
| Apollo 14 Jan. 31 – Feb. 9, 1971 |
Exploration of the Fra Mauro formation | Alan Shepard | November 18, 1923 | July 21, 1998 | d. 74 |
| Edgar Mitchell | September 17, 1930 | February 4, 2016 | d. 85 | ||
| Stu Roosa | August 16, 1933 | December 12, 1994 | d. 61 | ||
| Apollo 15 July 28 – Aug. 7, 1971 |
Exploration of Hadley Rille; first use of the lunar rover; Worden made first deep space walk to retrieve film from the service module | David Scott | June 6, 1932 | — | 85 |
| James Irwin | March 17, 1930 | August 8, 1991 | d. 61 | ||
| Al Worden | February 7, 1932 | — | 86 | ||
| Apollo 16 April 16-27 1972 |
Exploration of Descartes Highlands; Young and Duke spent more than 20 hours walking and driving on the surface | John W. Young | September 24, 1930 | Jan. 5, 2018 | d. 87 |
| Charles Duke | October 3, 1935 | — | 82 | ||
| Ken Mattingly | March 17, 1936 | — | 82 | ||
| Apollo 17 Dec. 7-19 1972 |
Final manned moon mission; Cernan and Schmitt spent 22 hours outside the lunar module exploring Taurus-Littrow highlands | Eugene Cernan | March 14, 1934 | Jan. 16, 2017 | d. 82 |
| Harrison “Jack” Schmitt | July 3, 1935 | — | 82 | ||
| Ronald Evans | November 10, 1933 | April 7, 1990 | d. 56 | ||
| Skylab 2 May 25 – June 22 1973 |
First U.S. space station crew; set new space duration record of 28 days; during launch, Skylab damaged with one solar panel torn off, another trapped against the ship by debris; crew freed the solar panel and spread a parasol over area where micrometeorite/ heat shield had been torn off; astronauts completed many of planned experiments | Pete Conrad | June 2, 1930 | July 8, 1999 | d. 69 |
| Joseph Kerwin | February 19, 1932 | — | 86 | ||
| Paul Weitz | July 25, 1932 | October 22, 2017 | d. 85 | ||
| Skylab 3 July 28 – Sept. 25 1973 |
Second U.S. space station crew set new space duration record of 59 days; conducted experiments on human body’s adaptation in space, observed sun using powerful space telescopes; placed second shield over parasol to protect station | Alan Bean | March 15, 1932 | — | 86 |
| Owen Garriott | November 22, 1930 | — | 86 | ||
| Jack Lousma | February 29, 1936 | — | 82 | ||
| Skylab 4 Nov. 16, 1973 – Feb. 8, 1974 |
Third and final crew set new duration record of 84 days; continued experiments begun by first two crews | Gerald Carr | August 22, 1932 | — | 85 |
| Edward Gibson | November 8, 1936 | — | 81 | ||
| William Pogue | January 23, 1930 | March 3, 2014 | d. 84 | ||
| Apollo- Soyuz Test Project July 15-24 1975 |
First joint docking of American and Soviet spacecraft in orbit; first and only spaceflight for Deke Slayton, one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts who had been grounded due to a heart irregularity | Tom Stafford | September 17, 1930 | — | 87 |
| Vance Brand | May 9, 1931 | — | 86 | ||
| Deke Slayton | March 1, 1924 | June 13, 1993 | d. 69 | ||
3 responses to “Borman & Lovell Celebrate 90th Birthdays”
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Their birthdays fall on the same date as the 50th anniversary of Gagarin’s death.
It’s a mystery surrounding the last year of his life. Was Gagarin an alcoholic by then?
Was he out of shape? Was the tragic Soyuz 1 spaceflight a year earlier supposed to take up
Gagarin instead of Komarov? Was Gagarin training to go up in Soyuz 3 that summer, and dock with
Soyuz 2 to use it as a ‘space tug’ to boost him into the Van Allen Radiation Belt?
Happy Birthday to both of these American heroes.
Congratulations and Happy Birthday to both Col. Frank Borman and Capt. Jim Lovell!