Chevrolet marks the fiftieth anniversary of the first American to travel into outer space

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="410"] Mercury 7 Astronauts[/caption]

May 5, 1961

If you happen to belong to the baby boomer generation, there’s a good chance you remember where you were on May 5, 1961. For those of you who weren’t around back then, that was the day Alan B. Shepard became the first American to fly into space.

Compared to what’s been accomplished since then, it really wasn’t that much – an up-and-down suborbital flight that lasted just 15 minutes. Shepard reached an altitude of 116 miles and splashed down 302 miles down the Atlantic Missile Range (he later walked on the moon as the Apollo 14 commander).

But at the time, Shepard’s flight was both amazing and heroic.

Terrestrial rocket ships

So why mention this on an automotive blog? Well, the fact is that when Shepard returned to earth, he jumped into his Chevrolet Corvette and raced up and down the highways of Florida’s east coast. Therefore, last week not only commemorates Shepard’s flight, it also marks the 50th anniversary of Chevy’s unofficial involvement with the U.S. space program.

I was reminded of this (I’d read about it in Tom Wolfe’s tome “The Right Stuff” years earlier) on May 5th of last week when Chevrolet issued a press release that covered this topic.

According to John T.R. Dillon III, a safety engineer at the Kennedy Space Center, “All of the astronauts were test pilots back then; they flew performance aircraft and they moved into performance cars with a well-honed appreciation for handling, acceleration and so forth."

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="319"] Alan Shepard and his '62 Corvette[/caption]

A tradition begins

Test pilots who flew fast planes naturally gravitated to fast cars and Alan Shepard was no exception. When Shepard reported for Space Program training in the spring of 1959, he brought along his 1957 Corvette and his enthusiasm for Chevy’s sports car rubbed off on a number of other astronauts.

After his historic flight, Shepard (who ended up owning 10 Corvettes during his lifetime) was able to trade up to a new model courtesy of GM. According to Chevrolet, “Shortly after Shepard’s historic flight, then General Motors Executive Edward N. Cole presented the astronaut with a new, white, 1962 Corvette. The car had been outfitted by GM designers with a customized space-age interior. As GM did not routinely give away cars, the Corvette-astronaut connection might have become totally coincidental in the years that followed, had not Florida Chevrolet dealer Jim Rathmann stepped into the picture."

What does Jim Rathmann have to do with this? This former racer and Melbourne, Florida Chevy dealer picked up on this enthusiasm and, after consulting with Chevrolet, was able to set up a special lease deal for all the astronauts. Of the original 7, only one, John Glenn, didn’t take him up on the offer (family man Glenn opted for a Chevrolet station wagon, instead).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="410"] Apollo 12 astronauts Conrad, Gordon and Bean[/caption]

Corvettes and astronauts

The Mercury 7 may have been the first but they certainly weren’t the last astronauts to drive Vettes. When Apollo 12 astronauts Dick Gordon, Charles Conrad and Alan Bean ordered new 1969 Corvettes through Rathmann, they asked that the identically equipped 390-hp 427 Stingray coupes be custom finished in a special black-accented Riverside Gold color scheme designed by Bean. A unique red, white and blue insignia was also added to the front fenders.

Not to be outdone, “Apollo 15 lunar mission crewmembers Jim Irwin, Al Worden and Dave Scott had been photographed with their Corvettes and a training version of the battery-powered Lunar Rover Vehicle (LRV) they would deliver to the moon. The “moon buggy,” as it was also called, utilized a mobility system built by General Motors. The Apollo 15 crew Corvettes were each a different color...red, white and blue. Dual racing stripes on each car rounded out the American flag colors.”

Bringing the Right Stuff to light

Only those living near “The Cape” witnessed the astronauts driving their Corvettes and, as Corvette Quarterly editor Jerry Burton points out, it was Tom Wolfe that brought the story to light.

“Prior to that, astronaut-related Corvette stories were just kind of folklore...I think that it is thanks to Tom Wolfe that the Corvette is today so solidly cemented to the legend of the pioneering astronauts,” said Burton.