Scott Carpenter is greeted by spectators while sitting in a Chevrolet Corvette after a parade in Cocoa Beach Florida.

Retired Mercury 7 astronaut Scott Carpenter is warmly greeted by spectators while sitting in a vintage Chevrolet Corvette after a commemorative parade in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

A group of current and retired NASA astronauts gathered in Cocoa Beach to commemorate NASA’s 50 years of accomplishments and to honor astronaut Alan Shepard’s Mercury/Freedom 7 suborbital flight May 5, 1961.The event was marked by a parade, with the astronauts riding in a fleet of Chevrolet Corvettes that corresponded with the time period of their space missions. Members of the Cape Kennedy Corvette Club, a group established in 1967, escorted almost two dozen astronauts or their family representatives in club members' cars. The Corvette parade started at the glass bank building, at 9:34 a.m. EDT, the same time Shepard launched into space. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett