Apollo Mission Modes
The LOR mission "mode" was one of three modes considered for Apollo.
The first was direct ascent. For this mission mode, a huge, monolithic rocket (called "Nova") would have launched into space, landed on the Moon, and then returned to Earth.
The second was earth orbit rendezvous, where two smaller rockets would have launched the capsule with the astronauts and a fuel tank. The astronauts would rendezvous with the fuel tank in Earth orbit, fill up the capsule and depart Earth orbit for the Moon.
The third mode was lunar orbit rendezvous, a plan first proposed by Tom Dolan and later developed by a team led by John C. Houbolt. In this mode, a rocket launches both the Command/Service Module (CSM) with the astronauts and the Lunar Module (LM). When the combined spacecraft reaches lunar orbit, one of the three astronauts remains with the CSM; the other two undock the LM from the CSM and descend to the surface of the Moon. They then use the ascent stage of the LM to rejoin the CSM in lunar orbit, and use the CSM for the return to Earth.
Read more about this topic: Lunar Orbit Rendezvous
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