William Worden-Penczak, the grandson of NASA command module pilot Al Worden, has partnered with a popular space collectibles company to restore the 1971 Corvette that was leased to his grandfather as part of a deal with General Motors.
GM leased new 1969 Corvettes to the Apollo 12 crew for just $1 per year, with Apollo 12 crewmates Alan Bean, Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon ordering matching gold-painted vehicles with special black-painted motifs intended to evoke the Apollo lunar module. This helped start an ‘AstroVette’ tradition that carried over to later NASA crews, including the Apollo 15 mission.
The Apollo 15 AstroVettes were finished in red, white and blue, with each feature matching, contrasting stripes to complete the American flag motif. The white car went to Al Worden, while red and blue cars were leased to his crewmates Jim Irwin and Dave Scott, respectively. Just like the cars that were lent to the Apollo 12 crew, the leases on the Apollo 15 Corvettes expired after just one year, at which point they were returned to the automaker in Michigan and eventually resold to new owners.
Worden-Penczak and Max Kaiserman, the founder of a collectibles company called Luna Replicas, purchased Worden’s Vette after it was rediscovered by a collector, according to space enthusiast blog Collect Space. They’ve now embarked on ‘Project AstroVette Endeavor’, as Luna Replicas calls it, which will see the pair restore the vehicle to its original condition and, ideally, display it for the 53rd anniversary of the Apollo 15 mission in about two years’ time. The vehicle will be restored to NCRS standards, with the work expected to cost around $200,000 all said and done.
Al Worden was not able to see his old Corvette before he passed away in 2020, however Worden-Penczak and Luna Replicas, which also produces a replica of the late astronaut’s flight jacket, hope displaying the car and bringing it to various events will inspire young students to enter the STEM field – a cause that the NASA astronaut was passionate about.
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Comments
Humans were never been on Moon themselves, it was a great Propaganda as probably cars belonged.
What other stupid things can you tell us about?
Perhaps the Earth is flat?
no, the Planets are more or less Round, but no way the Technology of NASA in 1960ies with ccomputers and so could physically take humans there, see how until today the SpaceX fights with their Cans to Sky are and really you guys in the america Dream North America believed in such but me as ex Engineer knows Space Mechs. Ok, they sent Sondas, Satellites are there but Humans even with Space Shuttle, indeed the Moon Marketing, was to take from Government the Billions to make truth the Space Shuttle, Humans did not got further than ISS, Skylab or Mir etc. Humans Technology is still Primitive, it is not already Beyond … no way. See airplanes, Mach 3, there was no a Mach 4, never a Mach 5, Blackbird Northrop is past, no, they went not there, for sure not 😉
Even the Soviets monitored the moon landings and never attempted to say they were fake. They even took pictures of the landing sites.
The entire idea of the moon landings being fake is based on Capricorn One.
It comes from believing stupid movies instead of paying attention to reality.
MK, You were the poster child during Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign on drugs, were you not?
X-15..Mach 7.5, SR-72 Aurora Mach 6, X-47B Mach 17 Space Shuttle Mach 17. You can see the flag on the moon with a large consumer telescope.
ok convinced me, we got minerals from moon and mars colonies already. will book the next flight to a resort there thanks X-47B says Mach 0.9+ (high subsonic) SR-72 was never produced X-15 carries no passenger… then all those are not airplanes but rocketry
when we have a Millennium Falcon … then ok we got, until now not
Nice try with your propaganda spreading…..Get a high powered telescope and look at the landing sites.
WTF there will always be non-believers and creators of ‘FAKE NEWS”
like covic 19 never existed- or “monkey pox” just a figament of our imaginations
just keep drinking the bleach to cleanout your systems
and the C8 never will be LMAO
MK, really? The Apollo program was neve real, and we are supposed to take you seriously because you’re an ex-engineer? Maybe you’re an ex-engineer because you went to work with a bottle of vodka and parked your Unicorn in the executive parking lot. May I suggest you go to your nearest Delorean dealer and set the year to July 24,1969 and watch Apollo 11 touchdown. A great day in “American” history.
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk ok apollo program existed, they turn around moon sometimes, land and survive to take off put in doubt, why nasa spacex can not do again ? all rockets are instable tiny explode, how can we believe more 40 years of progress and do not go … ! sincere
The difference today compared to the 1960’s is the safety factor. At any time any of those rockets/capsules systems could have failed. It was high risk. Today, NASA is trying to reduce the risk factor with a smaller budget compared to the 1960’s Apollo efforts.
Even the Russian SU-25 could go M3 not for long , and the SR-71 could do short sprints at M3.5-4. There is a limit to speed in the atmosphere that is just physics. Until ET comes down and advances our tech a few thousand years that is what we got.
yeah know all that but all in museum… why is not after 40 years beyond like films
generations today are flight simulators in youtube or gamers
Don’t comment on these idiots bating you. It just keeps them going.
but at end … restore this nice corvette, saw one today in street, it is really one of best corvettes shape, because even corvette went down hill and today do not reach the same enthusiasm as before, like the airplanes, rockets, lunar missions or whatever