Canceled Apollo missions Schirra's crew would fly the C mission, first manned CSM (Block II CSM-101, retrofitted with the cabin safety improvements) as Apollo 7 in October 1968. McDivitt's crew and mission were kept as the first manned development LM flight (D mission); this was planned to be Apollo 8 in December 1968, now using a single Saturn V launch vehicle instead of two separate Saturn IB launches. The E mission was planned as an elliptical medium Earth orbit test of the operational LM with the CSM in a simulated lunar mission to an apogee of , to be commanded by Frank Borman
Apollo 13 the Command Module Pilot. Seven days before launch, the backup lunar module pilot, Charlie Duke, contracted rubella from one of his children. This exposed both the prime and backup crews, who trained together. Mattingly was found to be the only one of the other five who had not had rubella as a child and thus was not immune. Three days before launch, at the insistence of the Flight Surgeon, Swigert was moved to the prime crew. Mattingly never contracted rubella and was assigned after the mission as command module pilot to Young's crew, which later flew Apollo 16, the fifth