#5- 2024 ASF Monthly T Shirt Corvette

Alan Shepard arrived at NASA in 1959 driving a white 1957 Corvette. After his sub-orbital flight on May 5, 1961, he toured the United States to gain support for NASA’s space flight programs. During this tour, he stopped in Detroit, Michigan, and visited General Motors where designer Bill Mitchell showed him three Corvette prototypes. GM President, Ed Cole, was there that day and handed Alan Shepard the keys to a 1962 Corvette, with a custom “space-aged” interior. This was the beginning of an unofficial partnership between the Mercury 7 Astronauts and the Chevrolet Corvette.

Jim Rathman, winner of the 1960 Indianapolis 500, and a local Chevrolet Dealer in Melbourne, Florida, worked with the President of GM to start a lease program for the astronauts. The astronauts could lease a Corvette for one dollar, getting a new, faster model each year. There are many stories of the fun they had racing up and down the space coast in their Corvettes. The iconic image of our heroic Mercury 7 Astronauts driving these incredible machines on Earth helped make the Corvette America’s sports car. We are honored to offer the next t-shirt in our 40th Anniversary Series that spotlights this great American classic.

Don’t miss out on your chance to own the Corvette t-shirt depicting the historic car the Mercury 7 Astronauts, and founders of the ASF, drove around town as they raced toward space.