Liisa Jorgensen - Far Side of the Moon: Apollo 8 Commander Frank Borman and the Woman Who Gave Him Wings

T his book is based on countless hours of in-person and telephone interviews with Frank Borman and many others mentioned in the acknowledgments, conducted over a two-year period from March 2019 to January 2021.

Those who knew Frank Borman in the past or have written about him will recall him as a serious, pragmatic, stubborn, tough-as-nails professional in everything he did. But when it comes to his beloved wife, Susan, the joy and pain associated with their love story brought this larger-than-life man to tears.

Frank never wavered in his recounting of the moments Im certain he would rather forget. On my first visit, I met with Frank in his modest home in Billings, Montana. There were no personal mementos that would tell you anything about his life in the US Air Force, NASA, or Eastern Airlines or any of the many trips he took around the world to represent his country. The only thing that hinted at his past life was hanging on a hook on the back of the garage door: the flight suit and baseball cap he uses when he goes flying at the age of ninety-two. Its still in his blood to get in the air.

The only photos displayed in his home are those of Susan and their family, and his most cherished memento is the last card Susan was able to write to him, which he keeps tucked away in the top drawer of his desk and showed me on one of my visits.

When I met Susan in the spring of 2019, she had already lost the ability to speak due to Alzheimers, but I feel I was able to hear her voice in some waythanks to the candid interviews I conducted with Frank and her friends and family.

During one of my visits Frank pulled out two watertight plastic containers with decades of cards and letters that Susan and he shared over their lifetime. Among Franks letters to Susan was one he wrote to her and the boys the night before Apollo 8 left for the Moon. It was something hed not seen since he penned it in the late hours of December 20, 1968.

Although the Bormans story unfolded in an analog world, the digital world has preserved much of their personal and professional lives. Courtesy of NASA, I was very fortunate to have access to a variety of films and printed materials, from the Gemini and Apollo flight plans and voice recordings to detailed mission transcripts. I have deep gratitude to the many writers and filmmakers that preceded me who captured the context and historical elements that are the backdrop to the Bormans story. Unless otherwise noted, all of Franks and Susans quotes and information about them are theirs.

S ince humans first gazed into the heavens, the Moon has fascinated our collective imaginations.

When Apollo 8 commander Frank Borman first saw the far side of the Moon, it was like nothing ever seen on Earth. Nothing was that desolate. It was a harsh place with no colorjust shades of gray everywhere you looked. This was the only time during that historic voyage that all communication was cut off from NASA and everything that connected him to home.

We have those times in life. Times when there is a loss of signal and we cant see anything but the void. For the crew of Apollo 8, that period of disconnection from the world they left behind in December 1968 lasted about forty-seven minutes every time they made the revolution around the Moon and were cut off from everything and everyone that they loved.

All the technology that got them there couldnt reach them in that place.

For those of us who experience that disconnection in our own lives, the abyss can last for much longer. It might seem that the loss of signal is permanent. But it never is.

After we finally come around to the other side and see the light, we look back and realize how sometimes the desolation can be beautiful. We can see what it taught us, what we learned.

As we gaze ahead to the brilliant colors in front of usbeautiful Earthwe appreciate it even more for having lost it for a while.

This is not a story about an astronaut who accomplishes the impossible.

This is a story about love and how it becomes the gravity that brings us back into the light.