[Paal Gulli]

"...Saw a show last night about the nasa Moon program and the Mercury 7 Astronauts were sold new Corvettes for $1.00 (except John Glenn who got a Station Wagon for being a Family Man) on the condition that they would trade the car back in for the newest model so the Dealer could sell the traded in Vette to a retail customer..."

They didn't buy the Vettes, the leased them. NASA got bent out of shape when GM gave Allen Shephard a '62 Vette because they don't allow their 'Nauts to endorse any product, and accepting a free car might be viewed as an endorsement. So GM leased them their Vettes for $1 a year. Which NASA didn't carp about because they didn't "own" the car.

[mabarker1]

They didn't buy the Vettes, the leased them.

I was just passing on the info on the ?History channel?.