Javillac
Currently, a celebrity driving a certain brand of car can be a premeditated event, since companies pay large sums of money for, for example, soccer teams to drive their cars. But in the middle of the 20th century The biggest stars in the world had a more literal meaning because they explored that new unknown frontier called outer space.
General Motors was very clever from the beginning since the astronauts became American heroes before they even began their missions, which is why decided to lend their most illustrious sports car, the Chevrolet Corvette, to NASA space explorers.
ALAN SHEPARD, PIONEER IN SPACE AND IN RECEIVING A CORVETTE
The space race is a very interesting topic and was nothing more than another example of power between the Soviet Union and the United States to demonstrate their technological superiority. The Russians began by taking the lead, as they were the first to put a satellite into orbit, Sputnik in 1957, and sent a man into space for the first time in April 1961., with Yuri Gagarin.
Faced with this provocation, the United States was more excited than ever with the concept of space travel, with a famous speech also in 1961 by the President Kennedy in which he promised the country that they would reach the moon before the end of the decade. Just a month after the Soviet milestone, NASA sent Alan Shepard into space, becoming the first American to do so.
Apart from being received as a hero, Shepard's feat was rewarded by General Motors executives, who upon his return gave him the keys to a brand new 1962 Chevrolet Corvette.. It is surprising to think that the brand's executives did not think much more about this gesture and the commercial possibilities that the astronauts had driving the Corvette.
Chance wanted Jim Rathmann to open a Chevrolet-Cadillac dealership very close to Cape Canaveral, after having won the Indianapolis 500 in 1960. He soon realized that Most of his clients were some of the most notorious figures within NASA and they asked him to modify their cars to make them faster., the star product being the Corvette.
CORVETTE C3: A NASA ICON IN THE SIXties
After the director of General Motors, Ed Cole, echoed the popularity of Corvettes among astronauts, he did everything possible to make them These and other celebrities drove these cars as a marketing strategy.
NASA company policy had changed by then, and did not allow workers, no matter how important they were, to receive gifts. General Motors found a solution to this problem by renting any car in its catalog for a symbolic price of one dollar a year., allowing astronauts to choose the configuration of their new cars that were theoretically borrowed.
The vast majority chose two cars, a family model for everyday use, and as a vehicle to enjoy the Corvette, which had presented its third generation in 1968, was always their first choice, almost always equipped with the most powerful engine; the 8 cubic inch (427 liter) 7 hp V390 of power
Neil Armstrong, the first human to set foot on the moon, was one of those who chose a Corvette, in his case a C2 blue from 1967. But most iconic were the C3s of the Apollo XII crew, who opted for a trio of identical cars painted in gold and black as a symbol of their friendship, and creating for many what are the most emblematic “Astrovettes”.
1971: END OF COLLABORATION BETWEEN GM AND NASA
True is that Once the Apollo XI mission reached the moon on July 20, 1969, interest in the space race decreased substantially., since the Americans had managed to beat the Soviets in that promise they made in 1961. The space missions continued, although none received so much media attention.
Journalist Jorge Méndez was with Apollo XV in 1971, when General Motors ended this promotion of Corvettes for astronauts, although there were still two other more manned missions to the Moon. On this occasion the cars were painted white, blue and red, each receiving stripes that completed the colors of the American flag, and of which only the white one, which belonged to Al Worden, survives today.
Images from GM, Historic Vehicle Association.
