When Project Apollo was first considered by NASA in 1960, it was going to be the follow-up to Project Mercury. The program was a lot less grandiose than what we eventually got. Apollo would start with missions similar to those flown during Gemini such as long-duration spaceflight, spacewalks, rendezvous, and docking. These missions would be followed by those to Space Stations and a circumlunar flight sometime around 1970. Actual lunar surface missions would follow in the late 1970s.
After the Soviets launched the first man into space in 1961, President Kenndy changed Apollo's objective to landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth before the end of the decade. NASA's original Apollo plans went out the window as the Moon became Apollo's sole focus. In order to save time some of the missions planned for Apollo were switched to Gemini while the Space Station plans were put on hold until Skylab.
So what would Apollo be like without the rush to the Moon? The Apollo spacecraft itself would look a lot more like Soyuz as one of the original requirements for the Apollo CSM was a "research module." The Saturn V would not be needed as the lunar goal would most likely be accomplished via the Earth Orbit Rendezvous mode using smaller Saturn rockets. (Remember one of the main reasons Lunar Orbit Rendezvous was seleced was that the CSM and LM could be developed in parallel speeding up total development time.) I put the rest to you.
After the Soviets launched the first man into space in 1961, President Kenndy changed Apollo's objective to landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth before the end of the decade. NASA's original Apollo plans went out the window as the Moon became Apollo's sole focus. In order to save time some of the missions planned for Apollo were switched to Gemini while the Space Station plans were put on hold until Skylab.
So what would Apollo be like without the rush to the Moon? The Apollo spacecraft itself would look a lot more like Soyuz as one of the original requirements for the Apollo CSM was a "research module." The Saturn V would not be needed as the lunar goal would most likely be accomplished via the Earth Orbit Rendezvous mode using smaller Saturn rockets. (Remember one of the main reasons Lunar Orbit Rendezvous was seleced was that the CSM and LM could be developed in parallel speeding up total development time.) I put the rest to you.