 George Low , the Manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office , proposed a solution in August to keep the program on track despite the LM delay . Since the Command / Service Module ( CSM ) would be ready three months before the Lunar Module , a CSM @-@ only mission could be flown in December 1968 . Instead of just repeating the " C " mission flight of Apollo 7 , this CSM could be sent all the way to the Moon , with the possibility of entering a lunar orbit . The new mission would also allow NASA to test lunar landing procedures that would otherwise have to wait until Apollo 10 , the scheduled " F " mission . This also meant that the medium Earth orbit " E " mission could be dispensed with . The net result was that only the " D " mission had to be delayed . 
