Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey brain Stuff. Lauren Bogelbaum here. When Mark Shelton was a boy growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, one of his more nagging concerns was that someday he might grow too big to fit into a space capsule. That was the nineteen sixties. NASA's Mercury program had just made its first phase around Earth, the Apollo program was in its planning stages. The Moon landing was still a dream and
years away. It was a time, as President John F. Kennedy said in Houston in the early part of the decade, to take up quote the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked. That was the beginning of young Mark Shelton's infatuation with space travel and the American space program. And though he never made it into space himself, or hasn't yet anyway, Shelton has become a part of NASA and the space program him
in his own poignant way. America's exploration of space has been marked by soaring triumphs and crushing tragedies. The Space Shuttle program suffered its first disaster in when the orbiter Challenger exploded barely a minute after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board. Shelton, like many others in America, watched
in horror that day. He didn't know what to do to show his support for a program that, until Challenger had become almost an afterthought too much of the American public before the article this episode is based on how st to Fork spoke with Shelton in he said, I wanted to find a way to let them know that every flight people care. Just because there isn't media coverage didn't mean that people didn't care. We take it seriously
that they take it seriously. More than two and a half years after the Challenger program, when NASA scientists had worked countless ours to determine what went wrong with Challenger, and countless more finding ways to make sure it didn't happen again, the Space Shuttle program finally resumed, and Shelton
decided on a simple gesture. It was after STS six, the first return to flight mission after the Challenger disaster wrapped up its mission in October and the Shuttle Discovery was safely back on land that Shelton, his wife Terry, and daughter Mackenzie sent a bunch of roses to NASA's Mission Control at Johnson's Space Center in Houston. In the bouquet was a red rose for each of the seven Discovery crew members on board, plus a single white one in remembrance of those who had been lost in the
space program. The bouquet included a short note, but no phone number or address for the sender for every manned mission that NASA has flown since the family has continued the tradition. Over more than three decades, the Sheltons have sent more than a hundred bouquets to mission Control all how stuff works. Also spoke with retired NASA Flight director Milt Heflin. He said, they've never missed one time. They've always been supportive. Mark and I talk every once in
a while. He'll call me and I'll call him. It's a friendship that's lasted. They are just so dedicated to doing this and to showing this support. That's what makes this really really remarkable to me. They even sent a bouquet to Mission control for SpaceX test launch of its crew Dragon capsule on March two, twenty nineteen, which docked successfully at the International Space Station. The Crew Dragon was unmanned, but carried a censor laid in mannequin dubbed Ripley after
the Space Explorer in the Alien movies. It was the first time the family sent to Bouquet for an unmanned mission, and the first one they sent after the spatial program ended. In this Bouquet also included a fake rose in honor of Ripley. Shelton said, this was like, we're back. We have a capsule that is capable of sup hoarding human life, a crew rated capsule, the condoct with the I S S in one with astronauts launching from US soil. Again,
they've kept up the tradition. It was NASA Flight director Heflin, who spent forty seven years with NASA and supervised twenty Shuttle missions, for seven of which he was the lead flight director, who tracked down the Sheltons after receiving that first vase of roses. They talked briefly on the phone. As Shelton said in twenty nineteen, I couldn't believe it. I was thinking, You've got way too much to do
to be talking with me. A few years later, with hef Line at Mission Control helming another Shuttle flight, another Bouquet arrived with a handwritten note from Terry. It read, in part, NASA and her projects and missions have always been a source of hope, pride, and inspiration to the people of the United States and more importantly, to the people all over the world. We all know the dedication of all of you associated with the Space Program to the successful co gletion of each mission and to the
safety of those whose lives are in your hands. We send flowers each time because we care that y'all care. I'm so grateful for the things that have come out of the Space Program which help our lives and those of our children. And my daughter Mackenzie is most important in our lives, and we are grateful for what y'all
do to improve the quality of her life. Almost fifty years after a human first walked on the Moon, Shelton and Hefflin still marvel what the Space program has accomplished, what it's still accomplishing, and look forward to what's next. Shelton said, miniaturization, health and medical improvement, and technological changes.
We got this little phone in our hand, and it has so much power, and we can see a satellite image and a pretty close up view of where we live and the weather and what's coming and global communication. Are the studies of Earth that's really important, and we don't know in the future are we ever going to need to leave the planet? Exploration is just such a basic need we have as individ Jules and as civilizations.
Thanks to Shelton and those like him, Heflin says, the more than seventeen thousands scientists, engineers, astronauts, teachers, and many other professionals who work for NASA feel the appreciation. Today's episode is based on the article One Family has sent flowers to NASA for more than thirty years on how Stuff Works dot Com, written by John Donovan. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio and partnership with how
stuff Works dot Com and is produced by Tyler. Playing or more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.