cor28vettes

AP article today says the first American in space, Alan Shepard, was honored with his own stamp on the eve of the 50th anniversary of his flight May 5, 1961. A forever stamp was chosen to honor Shepard, who died in 1998.

Goes on to say on Saturday morning a dozen or so former astronauts will take part in a parade in Cocoa Beach, riding in their Corvettes just as the Mercury astronauts did so long ago.





Update 10/10/13 - Scott Carpenter died of a stroke today at age 88. Along with John Glenn, Scott Carpenter was one of the last two surviving Mercury 7 astronauts and the 2nd U.S. astronaut in orbit. He once stated that one of the many reasons he joined the Mercury program was a chance for immortality. Most men never have a chance for immortality. Godspeed Scott Carpenter.





footnote: six of the original seven Mercury astronauts drove Corvettes through a special lease program. Family man John Glenn opted for a Chev station wagon.

mundo

Notice in the Movie Apollo 13 Astronaut Ken Mattingly had a sweet 1970 Corvette.

SRQStingray

I knew a Skylab astronaut. He told me Chevrolet gave them a new Vette every year to drive. What better advertising could there be than for astronauts to drive Corvettes.

REVAK

If you go to Lafferty Chevrolet , in Warminster Pa., you can see photos of many astronauts taken with a new corvette for that year. The former Johnsville Naval Air research Station, Where every man or woman that ever went into space trained at, at one time , is near Lafferty's. Mr. Lafferty would provide free for one year, the use of a new corvette, for the current astronauts in training, every year.There after you could buy a 1 year old vette that had been driven by one of our astronauts. This occurred during the 60's and 70's. There was an article in a local newspaper regarding this a year or so ago. Also Hurst Performance was , maybe still is , located not far away on the same road, Local Rt. 132 , Warminster, Pa.

NYC6

Astronaunts, Figher and Test Pilots have always known the Corvette is Americas Sports Car!
http://www.manufacturing.net/News/Fe...nd-astronauts/
http://www.beststuff.com/chevrolet/c...stronauts.html

coolsrt8

Go to the Kennedy Space Center and see all the Corvettes
Engineers and Astronauts love them

Dave Tracy

In our Corvette Club, we had a retired NASA engineer who owned a '67 coupe with 427/tri-power. He told of racing in the parking lots with Gus Grissom. His (Grissom's) son was at our member's funeral and reiterated the story.

diverdan

The astronauts had a long history with the Corvette. It's covered in the books The Right Stuff and A Man on the Moon.

Raazor

http://www.vetteweb.com/features/vet...ray/index.html

GOLD72

I remember!!!

davekp78

I'll be driving in the Cocoa Beach parade tomorrow.

Top_Fuel

Gus Grissom's '67 427/435

dgrant3830

I've helped put a lot of people and things into space...GM didn't give me a Corvette Oh well, no complaints here as I didn't get to fly but to be part of things was cool. Retired last year and have two Corvettes in my garage!

C-INRED

I'd love to be there. I remember my mom letting me stay home from school to watch both Alan Shepard and John Glenn go into space.

Goatdad

I'm trying to clear my day so I can attend!

Jimmy Mac!

I work on Edwards Air Force Base. The Shuttle lands here every now and then. I get asked if I'm a retired test pilot and even once out at our NASA area, if I was a retired astronaut. My reply was "I wish!"

0Ganley Aurora

glad someone mentioned this, I posted something on my site too. Alan Shepard was alos honored with a couple new stamps too;

PICTURES:
http://www.corvetteconti.com/blog/?p=11500

Goatdad

I spent the first 21 yrs of my life out in Lancaster, and the past 19 out here on the "Space Coast" but have 0 affiliation with the space program so i know what your saying!

rockethead7

I've talked with a lot of the astronauts/moonwalkers. I usually ask them about their 'Vettes (among other questions). None of them ever told me that they got them for free... but they also didn't say that they paid for them either. I think they got pretty polished at avoiding that question, while my best guess is that they got them for free, or very close to free.

Definitely the Corvettes you want to see are the Apollo 12 'Vettes that Pete Conrad got for himself and his crew (Dick Gordon and Alan Bean). There are some pictures in one of the links someone else posted. They were really damned sharp cars with CDR (commander) and CMP (command module pilot) and LMP (lunar module pilot) lettering on the sides.

When I was talking with Alan Bean last year, I asked him if he still has his... but like a complete moron, I've simply forgotten the answer. I'm leaning toward thinking he does NOT have it any more... but, sigh. I think I remember seeing Dick Gordon's on display over at the space center in Florida... but again, sigh, I'm struggling to remember. My wife took pictures, I'd have to double-check them.

Of course, most of the Apollo astronauts went through several 'Vettes in their careers. But, the ones they drove during the actual moon missions... those are the ones that make you drool. (Same for Mercury and Gemini, of course... just not quite as dramatically as Apollo.)

The Corvettes in Apollo 13 weren't necessarily 100% accurate. Well, I *know* Jim Lovell's was not. In the movie, it's a red one, but in reality he had a blue one. And, I think it's a 1972 Corvette in the movie, but his Apollo 13 mission was in April, 1970.

Gene Cernan's blue 1974 Corvette was sold about 8 years ago on eBay. Obviously he got that car AFTER his 2nd moonshot (Apollo 17 in December of 1972), in which he became the last person to walk on the moon (and the one with more hours walking on the moon's surface than any other... a little over 24 hours out on the surface out of the 3 days he was there... if I remember right). I asked him about that car... he told me he wasn't happy with the price he got for it... but, yeah, it wasn't his moonshot Corvette... and well, 1974s are not really in demand like some of the others. But, he had an arrangement with the Cadillac dealer who listed it for him and was giving him a bunch of extra credit in trade toward his new Cadillac if he agreed to sign over the 1974 to the winning bidder in person.

I also asked Buzz Aldrin, Dave Scott, Charlie Duke, Scott Carpenter, Fred Haise, and Vance Brand about their Corvettes... basically got standard answers like: "yes, most of the astronauts drove Corvettes" -- "yes, those were the days" -- "I wish I still had mine from XYZ year" -- things like that. But, whenever I asked anything about whether they paid for them themselves, or if Chevy gave them the cars, I usually got an "I don't remember" answer, or something even more ambiguous. I didn't ask every single one of them, of course. But, after the Dave Scott stamp thing, and the Gus Grissom dime thing, I think the astronauts were reprimanded pretty heavily if they ever revealed any personal perks they got out of the job.

Buzz Aldrin, though... being the most analytical minded of the astronauts... yeah, he said something like: "it was the car to have if you were an astronaut" (or something like that). Basically, he kind of indicated that it was almost a job requirement, but not in a "conformist" kind of way... just that it was the car an astronaut was supposed to have. Of course, none of the astronauts were "conformists" - they were all very type-A, especially Buzz Aldrin (whom nobody really liked in those days... and while I was listening to him and Jim Lovell argue during breakfast about the G-forces felt during staging, I'm guessing that he's still not very well liked). So, I'm not doing a good job of describing what he said. But, the man is definitely brilliant, and had an interesting angle about having his Corvette(s) in those days. Again, sigh.

I never got a chance to ask Neil Armstrong. He stays pretty guarded. And, even though I've been as close as 2-feet away from him at a dinner table, he wasn't taking questions.

So, hmm, don't know if I've contributed anything to this thread or not....

Marc V.