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  5/7: Cocoa Beach Astronaut Corvette Parade

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Author Topic:   5/7: Cocoa Beach Astronaut Corvette Parade
MarylandSpace
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posted 05-03-2011 07:00 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for MarylandSpace   Click Here to Email MarylandSpace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Astronaut Encounter astronaut Jon McBride told the audience that many astronauts will be participating in a Corvette Parade in Cocoa Beach on Saturday, May 7.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 05-03-2011 07:04 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Cocoa Beach Area Chamber of Commerce release
Cocoa Beach Parade to celebrate 50 years of manned space flight

The Cocoa Beach Parade is scheduled for Saturday, May 7, 2011. The parade will start at 9:34 a.m., the same time Alan Shepard was launched into space. The parade is to celebrate 50 years of manned space flight and the City of Cocoa Beach's 86th Anniversary.

The opening ceremonies will start at 11 a.m., located around the Cocoa Beach City Hall, 2 S. Orlando Avenue. The celebration will continue throughout the day until 11 p.m..

Bring your lawn chairs to enjoy entertainment from local bands, food, kids games, finger painting and face painting, K-9 Demonstrations and Police, Fire and Military displays.

"Over 30 astronauts, several dignitaries and legislators are to ride on Kennedy Corvette Club Corvettes," according to Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex astronaut Jon McBride.

Cocoa Beach Area Chamber of Commerce's President/CEO, Melissa Stains said "We are thrilled to be a part of this monumental occasion."

Robert Pearlman
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posted 05-03-2011 11:15 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The list of confirmed astronaut parade participants is now on Sightings.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 05-05-2011 03:09 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Chevrolet release
Commemorating 50 Years of Corvettes and Astronauts

On May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepard became the first American to travel into outer space. When he returned to terra firma, Shepard got behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Corvette - and the legends of America's favorite sports car and spacemen have been intertwined ever since.

On May 7, 2011, approximately 30 of America's surviving astronauts are expected to gather at Cocoa Beach, Fla., where they will participate in a parade commemorating the 50th anniversary of Shepard's historic sub-orbital flight. Fittingly, they will be driven in Corvettes representing all six design generations built since the famed sports car's 1953 debut.

"Each astronaut will ride in a Corvette from the generation current at the time of their mission," parade coordinator John T. R. Dillon III said.

Dillon, a Safety Engineer at the Kennedy Space Center, is also a Corvette owner and member of the Cape Kennedy Corvette Club, which counted four astronauts among its original membership when it was founded in 1967.

"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," Dillon said.

Shepard brought along his 1957 Corvette when he reported for Space Program training in April, 1959...he would own at least 10 Corvettes in his lifetime. His enthusiasm for sports cars was shared by several of the other adventurous and dedicated young men who would train with him to become America's first astronauts.

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.

After winning the 1960 Indianapolis 500 as a professional racer, Rathmann opened a Chevrolet-Cadillac dealership at Melbourne, Fla., near the Space Center, in 1961. Sensing that most of the spacemen were at heart Corvette types, Rathmann negotiated a special lease arrangement with Chevrolet to put them into the sports cars.

Six of the Mercury astronauts would take Rathmann up on his Corvette offer. Stalwart family man John Glenn opted for a new Chevrolet station wagon instead. Glenn's wagon reportedly proved just the thing for those occasions when the seven astronauts needed to travel together.

During an interview in 1998, Rathmann said, "Al Shepard was a racer...he was always wanting to be the fastest guy."

That ambition was shared by fellow Mercury astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom. The two-lane blacktop duels fought by Shepard and Grissom in their big block-powered Corvettes would truly become the stuff of legend. In his quest for a competitive edge, Grissom had his last Corvette, a 1967 convertible, specially geared and modified to accept extra-wide rear racing tires.

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. NASA administrators reportedly fretted that a subsequently published LIFE Magazine photo of the space-suited Apollo 12 astronauts and their matching Corvettes could be misconstrued as a forbidden product endorsement.

Even so, another photo of a trio of American astronauts with their Corvettes would appear in LIFE, during June 1971. 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.

The enduring association with America's astronauts has contributed greatly to the legend of the Corvette.

"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."

Released in 1979, author Tom Wolfe's bestselling book, "The Right Stuff," recounted the beginnings of America's space program. The book's success sparked a revival of interest in the original Mercury 7 space heroes -- and their Corvette adventures.

"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.

That association continues even today. The 1995 movie "Apollo 13" featured two era-authentic Corvettes, one of them used in a key scene featuring Tom Hanks as astronaut Jim Lovell. The 2009 movie "Star Trek XI" opens in the year 2245, with a 12-year old James T. Kirk driving a 280-year old 1965 Corvette Sting Ray.

These stories, both fiction and non-fiction, contribute to the persistent urban legend that astronauts have owned more Corvettes than any other kind of car. That is likely a timeworn legacy of the first decade of the American Space Program. It is probably fair to say, however, that more astronauts have had more fun behind the wheel of America's Sports Car than in any other automobile.

For more information about the heady early years at the Cape, see Wally Schirra's biography, "Schirra's Space." For more information on the historic connection between astronauts and Corvette, see Corvette Quarterly stories from 1989 and 2006.

MarylandSpace
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posted 05-07-2011 03:20 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for MarylandSpace   Click Here to Email MarylandSpace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Did anyone get photos to post from today's parade?

Ken Havekotte
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From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
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posted 05-07-2011 04:28 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ken Havekotte   Click Here to Email Ken Havekotte     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
After a lovely breakfast early this morning in the heart of Cocoa Beach, a bunch of us space folks and our families were able to catch the astronaut corvette pararde downtown.

It was a clear and beautiful "parade day."

Headed by Laura Churchley, Shepard's oldest daughter, there were about 15 corvettes with former astronaut riders.

This morning's parade reminded me of my first-ever astronaut parade. It will be 42 years ago next month!

It was shortly after the Apollo 10 crew returned from their lunar voyage in 1969.

My family and I had just moved into the area on Merritt Island, and needless to say, I was very excited at a chance to see a real astronaut(s) in person! At the time, I was 12 or 13.

The returning Apollo 10 crew of Stafford, Young, and Cernan rode together in the back seat of an open convertible as the moon voyagers passed by my mother and I.

While standing and waving to the astronaut pioneers alongside A1A in downtown Cocoa Beach, I said to my mom, "Look, they're looking right at us ..."

While today's astronaut parade, one of many that I have personally witnessed here on the Florida Space Coast, didn't have all the big crowds and hoopla during the Apollo era, it was still a thrill in being there.

Actually, we were only a few yards away from the exact location when my mom and I first saw an astronaut "looking and waving back at us" more than four decades ago.

Unfortunately, we didn't snap any pictures of the parade, as we wanted to enjoy the day fully without any distractions. And what a beautiful Cocoa Beach day it was!

It should be noted that ex-shuttle pilot astronaut Jon McBride, a committee member of NASA's Celebrating 50 Years of Human Spaceflight, was responsible in getting all the astronaut parade participates and related activities.

MarylandSpace
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posted 05-07-2011 05:58 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for MarylandSpace   Click Here to Email MarylandSpace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thank you for the great report and memories. I wish I could have been there.

Spaceguy5
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From: Pampa, TX, US
Registered: May 2011

posted 05-07-2011 06:35 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Spaceguy5   Click Here to Email Spaceguy5     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
It was an excellent parade. The events at the KSCVC afterward (lunch with 6 apollo astronauts and the induction ceremony) were great too. I got lots of pictures and I'll be sure to upload them later. Although, I'm going to be on the road for 2-3 days.

KSCartist
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From: Titusville, FL USA
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posted 05-07-2011 06:40 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for KSCartist   Click Here to Email KSCartist     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks Ken - I wish I could have been there.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 05-07-2011 11:26 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Florida Today has a photo gallery and this video.

spaceman
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From: Walsall, West Midlands, UK
Registered: Dec 2002

posted 05-08-2011 06:18 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for spaceman   Click Here to Email spaceman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
How fantastic to be so close to the action...a nd for so long in Ken H's case. Thanks for the clip. It gives a warm feeling too as we Englanders have had a chance to meet at least some of the astronaut greats including Scott Carpenter, Dick Gordon, Ed Mitchell, and Walt Cunningham on this side of the world courtesy of Autographica, Ken Willoughby, Aileen Malone and Dave Shayler.

More stills and video is appreciated.

Robert Pearlman
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From: Houston, TX
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posted 05-10-2011 12:29 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The parade made it into The New York Times.
The astronauts rode in Corvettes that corresponded with the time period of their space missions. Scott Carpenter, who followed Shepard into orbit in 1962, sat on the rear deck of a C1 Corvette convertible, while Susan Kilrain, a crew member from multiple missions in the space shuttle Columbia in the ’90s, rode in a C5.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 05-11-2011 02:05 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Kennedy Space Center's Media Archive now has a collection of photos from the parade.

Robert Pearlman
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From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 05-12-2011 06:06 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Chevrolet video release
50 Years of Corvettes and Astronauts

The association between Corvettes and astronauts is showcased in a parade celebrating the 50th anniversary of Alan B. Shepard's historic sub-orbital flight in Cocoa Beach, Fla. where surviving astronauts rode Corvettes representing all six design generations built since the famed sports car's 1953 debut.

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