Apollo-Saturn 204 was to be the first manned Apollo mission, NASA announced through the manned space flight Centers.

The news release, prepared at NASA Hq., said the decision had been made following a Design Certification Review Board meeting held the previous week at OMSF. The launch date had not been determined. Crewmen for the flight would be Virgil I. Grissom, command pilot; Edward H. White II, senior pilot; and Roger B. Chaffee, pilot. The backup crew would be James A. McDivitt, command pilot; David R. Scott, senior pilot; and Russell L. Schweickart, pilot. The AS-204 spacecraft would be launched by an uprated Saturn I launch vehicle on its earth-orbital mission "to demonstrate spacecraft and crew operations and evaluate spacecraft hardware performance in earth orbit."