The second half of the 20th century in space, was first marked by fierce competition and then cooperation between American and Soviet projects. In Russia, probably only Armstrong is known with his pompous words about the first step of man on the moon. And few remember Frank Bormann, the first astronaut to fly around a satellite of the Earth.
Early years and education
Frank Frederick Bormann was born in the small town of Gary, Indiana, and now there is a motorway named after him. He was the only child in the German family of Edwin and Marjorie Bormann. As a child, Frank often caught a cold due to the cold and damp climate. Therefore, the father moved the family to the warmer state of Arizona, the city of Tucson, which he considers to be his family. At the age of 15, Frank learned to fly and received a flight license. He graduated from high school in 1946. Bormann earned a bachelor's degree from the prestigious West Point Military Academy in 1950. Together with part of the graduation course, he went to serve in the air force. After completing a flight internship in August 1951, he became a military pilot.
Air Force Service
For three years, Frank was a fighter pilot in the Philippines in a fighter-bomber squadron. In 1953 he was transferred to the United States, where he continued to serve as a military pilot in various units in Georgia and Arizona.
While remaining in military service, in 1957, Frank was awarded a master's degree at the California Institute of Technology, specializing in aviation engineer. In the same year, he became an assistant professor at the US Military Academy at West Point, specializing in the field of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics.
He continued to improve his flight skills in 1960, at the Edwards base in California, Frank graduated from the US Air Force School to train pilots for experimental flight tests. A year later, he continued to improve his career as a pilot at the Aerospace School of Research Pilots, becoming a pilot instructor in aviation training before graduating.
Along with flying practice, Bormann also worked as an aircraft engineer, carrying out work on the modification of the F-104 power plant, as an officer for the implementation of the project. In critical situations, he showed composure and flying skills. In one of the test flights, his F-104 engine stopped working at supersonic speed, after he slowed down, he managed to start the engine and land the plane.
Space preparation
Frank was enrolled in the second set of NASA astronaut squad in September 1962, the total flight time by this time was 6, 000 hours.
He completed a spacecraft pilot training course. As an aeronautical engineer, Frank specialized in launch vehicles and also became a good specialist in emergency rescue systems. He managed to work with the chief designer of American spacecraft von Braun to develop an emergency fault system.
In 1963, Frank Borman began to prepare as a pilot, along with Alan Shepard, for the first flight on the new manned two-seater ship "Gemini". However, by the end of the year, due to a partner's illness, Shepard's middle ear was inflamed and he was suspended from flying, and Frank also transferred a backup crew.
First flight
On his first space flight, astronaut Frank Borman, along with James A. Lovell Jr., flew on December 4, 1965, the commander of the Gemini 7 spacecraft. The main task was to develop maneuvers of docking with the Gemini 6 ship, which was put into low Earth orbit a little later.
Ships made maneuvering, carried out rapprochement at a distance of up to 30 centimeters imitating the docking. After a joint flight, they parted and surveyed the surface of each other’s ships.
Another task was to find out the limits of endurance of people, because the doctors did not know how much a person can withstand in zero gravity. Despite his small stature, Frank Borman admitted that his leg muscles had almost completely atrophied. They set a new record for flight duration, which amounted to just over 13.5 days.
After rehabilitation, in 1966 he was twice appointed to the crews of manned flights under the Apollo program, which should be the first using the new Saturn rocket carrier. However, due to a fire in the cockpit of the Apollo 1 ship, in 1967 these programs were closed.
Around the moon
The next flight of Frank Borman on the Apollo 8 spacecraft was also experimental, preparation for the landing of an astronaut on the moon. The main task was to test the ship’s control systems in the translunar flight, to develop the exit to the lunar centric orbit, and to return at the second space speed.
The flight was very risky, before that the Saturn-5 rocket launches took place only in an unmanned version, while they did not go very smoothly. In an effort to get ahead of the Soviet lunar program, NASA launched a ship on which instead of the landing module there was a breadboard model. If the main engine failed, the astronauts could not return to Earth, because the sedimentary module engine should have served as the backup engine at this stage of the flight.
As a special envoy of the president, Frank Borman traveled to many countries. In particular, he visited Star City, where he presented the museum with his watch, which was with him during the flight to the moon. Frank Borman flew to the USSR with his wife and two sons, who really liked the country and people.
