The commander of the first mission to orbit the moon dies. He was 95 years old

The crew of the Apollo 8 spacecraft, led by Borman, reached lunar orbit for the first time in human history. The ship completed 10 laps, after which the crew returned to Earth.

For 40-year-old Borman, this was his second space flight. The astronaut earned his pilot’s license at age 15, served in the U.S. Air Force in the Philippines, earned a master’s degree from the California Institute of Technology and was an assistant professor of thermodynamics and aerodynamics of fluids at the U.S. Military Academy, where he previously served, graduating eighth out of 670 graduates.

In 1960, he qualified for the pilot test school and was accepted into the second group of astronauts. In 1966, he completed a 14-day spaceflight aboard Gemini 7, which made its first orbital encounter with another manned spacecraft, Gemini 6A. In 1967, he participated in the investigation committee into the Apollo 1 spacecraft fire, in which three people died during preparations for the space flight.