Alan B. Shepard, the first American to travel into outer space, drove a 1957 Chevrolet Corvette. GM’s gift to the astronaut ultimately entangled America’s favorite sports car and spacemen ever since. That’s why all six design generations built since the Corvette’s 1953 debut were on hand at a recent parade commemorating the 50th anniversary of Shepard’s historic sub-orbital flight.
“In the 1960s, astronauts were the American heroes that every child idolized and every adult respected,” said Corvette historian and former Corvette Quarterly editor Jerry Burton. “That so many of them drove Corvettes really helped to establish Corvette as America’s sports car.”
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