The Silent Witnesses - AL BORDEN

AL BORDEN, Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 18

Albert Robert Borden (1938-1973) grew up in Monterey, California, and attended the University of Southern California, where his boyish enthusiasm and brilliant mind resulted in a doctoral degree in geology faster than anyone in USC academic history. Borden’s research in Antarctica meteorites caught NASA’s attention and in 1969 he was inducted into the NASA astronaut corps.

Borden rapidly gained national fame as the “darling astronaut of the corps” and appeared on a number of national magazine covers. While disappointed that he would not be the first trained geologist to explore another planet, Borden nevertheless brought his customary fervor to his assignment as lunar module pilot for Apollo 18. Borden died in China in 1973 and is survived by his wife, Katherine Parrish-Borden.