Change of Plan for Apollo 8 August 1968

You are advising NASA’s Apollo programme managers.

Apollo 8 is scheduled to test the command module and the lunar module together in Earth orbit. But the lunar module is running late and will not be ready in time. Some managers are proposing a bolder alternative: sending Apollo 8 all the way to orbit the Moon, without a lunar module.

Known information

The Saturn V rocket has flown only twice, without crew, and the second flight in April 1968 had serious problems, including engine shutdowns.
The redesigned command and service module has not yet flown with astronauts; that test, Apollo 7, is planned for October.
Without a lunar module, the crew would have no second spacecraft on board.
US intelligence suggests the Soviet Union may be preparing to send cosmonauts around the Moon.
A lunar-orbit mission would test navigation and communications at lunar distance before any landing attempt.

Reveal what happened (spoilers: decide first)

Fact

What actually happened

NASA changed Apollo 8 to a lunar-orbit mission. (Send Apollo 8 to the Moon)

On 19 August 1968 NASA announced that the lunar module had been removed from the flight, and after the success of Apollo 7 it confirmed on 12 November that Apollo 8 would orbit the Moon. Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders launched on 21 December 1968, became the first people to orbit the Moon, completing 10 orbits, and returned safely on 27 December.

Important

Possible consequences · Analysis and speculation, not fact

Keeping the Earth-orbit plan might have delayed the first lunar flights by months, making a landing before the end of 1969 harder. How much the Soviet programme could have gained from that delay is debated.

History does not reveal what would definitely have happened under the other choice. Many factors could have changed the outcome.

Context · Why it was decided this way

The idea is often credited to Apollo spacecraft manager George Low, who saw a way to keep the programme moving while the lunar module was delayed. Senior managers weighed the risks of the Saturn V’s problems and an untested crewed spacecraft against the benefits of early experience at lunar distance.

The crew’s Christmas Eve broadcast from lunar orbit and the ‘Earthrise’ photograph taken during the mission became widely known. Historians also see the flight as an important step towards the Apollo 11 landing the following July.