NASA will honor former astronaut Frank Borman for his involvement in the U.S. space program with the presentation of the Ambassador of Exploration Award at 5 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 8 at the Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, Ariz. The event is open to the media and public.
NASA is presenting the Ambassador of Exploration Award to the 38 astronauts who participated in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs for realizing America’s vision of space exploration from 1961 to 1972. NASA is also recognizing several other key individuals who either participated in or supported the early space programs.
The award is a small sample of lunar material encased in Lucite and mounted for public display. The material is part of the 842 pounds of samples brought back to Earth during the six Apollo lunar expeditions from 1969 to 1972. Borman’s award will be displayed in the museum at 6000 East Valencia Road, Tucson.
Borman led the first team of American astronauts to leave Earth orbit and circle the moon as commander of the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. Borman, with crewmates James Lovell and William Anders, were the first humans to view the far side of the moon. He was also a member of the Gemini 7 crew, which performed the first ever orbital rendezvous linking with Gemini 6 in 1965. Borman was a career U.S. Air Force officer, retiring as a colonel. For his astronaut biographical information, visit:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/borman-f.html
For event, media access and Pima Air & Space Museum information, contact Scott Marchand at: (520) 618-4811; e-mail: smarchand@pimaair.org.
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