'70 350/350hp Corvette "Astronaut Edition"

[Mr. Chevy]

From the Corvette Museum....


Corvettes have been associated with America’s manned space program from Alan Shepard’s first sub-orbital Mercury flight in the Freedom 7 capsule on May 5, 1961 to the final flight of Apollo 17 landing astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt on the moon on December 11, 1972. It stands to reason that anyone adventurous enough to become an astronaut would prefer similarly exciting earth-bound transportation. Ed Cole, President of General Motors with Jim Rathmann Chevrolet of Melbourne Florida offered the astronauts a special Chevrolet plan in which they were given the use of any Chevrolet automobile for a year at the very nominal cost of $1. It comes as no surprise that for many astronauts, Corvette was their car of choice.

Unfortunately for Corvette collectors, the astronaut’s Corvettes were turned in at the end of the one-year period and were sold to the general public. Once assimilated into the general Corvette population, the astronaut’s Vettes disappeared from public view. Only a few devoted Corvette detectives were aware of the VINs or the special characteristics of the astronaut’s Corvettes and they were always on the lookout for one coming on the market. Danny Reed was one such Corvette detective.

Rich