Countdown: An Autobiography

by Frank Borman, Robert J. Serling

Recounts Borman's flights aboard NASA's Gemini 7 and Apollo 8, and his battle to keep Eastern Airlines financially sound during his tenure as the company's president

Genres: Space, Biography, Nonfiction, Autobiography, American History, History

448 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1988

Reviews

[Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to take a bit of a departure from my usual review approach. I'm going to focus most prominently on the first 57 percent of the book. This is an autobiography of a man arguably most famous because of his connections with Apollo eight. He was the commander for that mission, and his voice is one of the three you may remember if you're old enough when they read from the book of Genesis on Christmas Eve. I had just turned 11 days prior to that Christmas Eve, and I watched that broadcast with my parents that night. Oddly enough, I can't recall the gifts I received the following morning, but I still have vivid memories of listening to those astronauts read the creation story. This book is Borman's story. You begin with his childhood in Indiana, a childhood that according to his reckoning, was rather sickly. Doctors told his parents to get him out of the Midwest and into a drier, warmer climate. They did. Frank Borman grew up in Tucson. The writing style for this is fascinating throughout. It will hold your interest. You will read about Borman's high school days in which he played some football but was never great. It is during those years that he meets Susan, the woman who would become his wife of more than four decades. As his senior year approaches, he realizes he wants to go to the West Point Academy. Assuming he is too late to get in, he nevertheless tries, and when other alternates drop out of the race, young Borman is in.

You read with interest about his West Point years and a decision he makes to break things up with Susan. The Academy and his military future matter more than anything else at that point. But it isn't long before he realizes how foolish he has been and what a massive mistake he has made. It's no spoiler alert to point out that he does indeed win her back, and according to his account, theirs was a successful marriage.

Read this to track Borman's progress in what would become the Air Force. He learned to fly, then he taught others how to do it. When NASA began recruiting astronauts for the Gemini and Apollo programs, Borman signed up.

The chapters that focused on the space program as he knew it were among the best and most consistently interesting in the book. I joined with what felt like a chorus of Goodreads reviewers who point out that the section devoted to his work with Eastern Airlines was somewhat less interesting. That doesn't mean you should stop reading at chapter 14. It is interesting enough that you really should finish the book. I'm glad I did.

Borman commanded the Gemini 7 flight, and he was an integral part of the redesign of the Apollo spacecraft following the horrible fire of Apollo one that claimed three lives in 1967.

I loved reading the Apollo 8 chapter. It brought back so many memories for me, and it was fascinating to read about the behind-the-scenes Stuff you may not find anywhere else. I couldn't help but smile when I read about the account of a special Christmas dinner that the Whirlpool Corporation crafted for the astronauts. Apparently, Whirlpool designed the gravy to be so thick that even in weightlessness, it didn't leave the spoon. I can't imagine what that was like to eat. Borman writes about it gratefully enough here. He doesn't seem to complain.

Upon his return from space, he announces his plans to leave NASA. But he and Nixon had become relatively close, and NASA asked Borman to stay on as a liaison between the agency and the president. He does at least for a while. It garners him a trip to Europe that was fun to read about, and he managed to snag a visit to the Soviet Union for a somewhat veiled look at that country's space program.

Chapter 16 is a tender forthright examination of the toll Borman’s work and personality took on his wife and sons. It openly describes her collapse into alcoholism and nervous breakdown.

The chapters that dealt with his years at Eastern Airlines were moderately interesting, but less so than the first 13 or so chapters.

[Deborah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book, by one of the original astronauts, was the most difficult to read so far. There was so much superfluous information, ages and unnecessary padding of information about insignificant characters it appeared he was adding things just to make the word count greater.

I like the behind the scenes of the space program, the part the public never got to see.
The disrespect that was shown to others and the pedestal he put himself on, especially at Eastern appeared he was infallible and it was all about the damage the "other guy" was causing.

With a title like "Countdown" reader expects more about the space program then running a failing commercial airline.

It was enlightening to see what most already know: deregulation of corporations is bad, Positions of power should have mandatory term limits and positions representing WE THE PEOPLE should keep that task in focus or be removed.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with any of the Space Race era astronauts, Borman has had an interesting life. Unlike the biographies of his peers, only about half of this book is about his time with the space program; much of the rest of it is spent on his time in various leadership capacities at Eastern Airlines. That half is obviously not as interesting as the NASA era material, but is a good glimpse of what such positions are like, and how after working in a productive environment it's frustrating to move into a leadership position of an environment that is almost the opposite. The NASA era material is somewhat abbreviated compared to works of his peers, but it is interesting to get Borman's accounts of them. In some cases, they vary drastically.

[Joe Seliske · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank Borman was the commander of Gemini 7, a fourteen day flight in a capsule no bigger than the front seat of a Volkswagen Beetle. He investigated the Apollo 1 fire and helped redesign the Apollo spacecraft. He was commander of Apollo 8, the first space flight to leave earth orbit and orbit the moon. Three presidents of the United States wanted him to come and work for them. He eventually became president and CEO of Eastern Airlines, an airline with high management and labour costs. He did his best to "fix" the airline, but he was not entirely successful. He spent seventeen years with Eastern. Half of the book is devoted to the Eastern years - my preference would be to hear more about the space flights and his life as an astronaut. Well-written biography.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first two parts are good: early life, USAF experience, and NASA life. That encompasses about 275 pages. The next 175 pages are about his life at Eastern Airlines and are easily skipped or lightly skimmed.

[Ethan Symon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will never understand people who review biographies of astronauts poorly because it wasnt fully about them being astronauts. Clearly they had lives before and after space.
This is a great read about Bormans NASA career and alot of the other side of the Eastern Airline battle.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Frank Borman's autobiography just for his account of the pioneering Apollo 8 mission, which has been afforded far less coverage in history than it deserves.

By all accounts, Borman was a fairly humorless, hard-driving commander, and this book does not dispel that notion. His prose is appropriately firm and dry.

The book is notable for Borman's coverage of the Apollo 204 (aka 'Apollo 1') fire and its aftermath. Borman headed a tiger team of NASA astronauts and engineers which worked closely with North American Aviation in 1967 and 1968 to fix the myriad problems with the Apollo command and service modules. Borman's no-nonsense, take-charge nature helped NASA and North American focus on getting the program back on track for America's run to the moon before 1970.

His description of the Apollo 8 mission is good, but it still left me wanting a more robust account than can be given in an autobiography.

(I will note here that Robert Zimmerman's book Genesis: The Story Of Apollo 8, The First Manned Flight To Another World --which wasn't published until the 90s--is a step in the right direction, although I don't consider that a first-rate history by any means.)

At the point in the book where Borman retired from NASA and went into the private sector (he was CEO of Eastern Airlines for several years) I stopped reading, as I was only interested in Borman's work with NASA.