Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff. Lauren Bogelbaum here. When Mark Shelton was
Speaker 1: a boy growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, one of
Speaker 1: his more nagging concerns was that someday he might grow
Speaker 1: too big to fit into a space capsule. That was
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties. NASA's Mercury program had just made its
Speaker 1: first phase around Earth, the Apollo program was in its
Speaker 1: planning stages. The Moon landing was still a dream and
Speaker 1: years away. It was a time, as President John F.
Speaker 1: Kennedy said in Houston in the early part of the decade,
Speaker 1: to take up quote the most hazardous and dangerous and
Speaker 1: greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked. That was
Speaker 1: the beginning of young Mark Shelton's infatuation with space travel
Speaker 1: and the American space program. And though he never made
Speaker 1: it into space himself, or hasn't yet anyway, Shelton has
Speaker 1: become a part of NASA and the space program him
Speaker 1: in his own poignant way. America's exploration of space has
Speaker 1: been marked by soaring triumphs and crushing tragedies. The Space
Speaker 1: Shuttle program suffered its first disaster in when the orbiter
Speaker 1: Challenger exploded barely a minute after liftoff, killing all seven
Speaker 1: astronauts on board. Shelton, like many others in America, watched
Speaker 1: in horror that day. He didn't know what to do
Speaker 1: to show his support for a program that, until Challenger
Speaker 1: had become almost an afterthought too much of the American
Speaker 1: public before the article this episode is based on how
Speaker 1: st to Fork spoke with Shelton in he said, I
Speaker 1: wanted to find a way to let them know that
Speaker 1: every flight people care. Just because there isn't media coverage
Speaker 1: didn't mean that people didn't care. We take it seriously
Speaker 1: that they take it seriously. More than two and a
Speaker 1: half years after the Challenger program, when NASA scientists had
Speaker 1: worked countless ours to determine what went wrong with Challenger,
Speaker 1: and countless more finding ways to make sure it didn't
Speaker 1: happen again, the Space Shuttle program finally resumed, and Shelton
Speaker 1: decided on a simple gesture. It was after STS six,
Speaker 1: the first return to flight mission after the Challenger disaster
Speaker 1: wrapped up its mission in October and the Shuttle Discovery
Speaker 1: was safely back on land that Shelton, his wife Terry,
Speaker 1: and daughter Mackenzie sent a bunch of roses to NASA's
Speaker 1: Mission Control at Johnson's Space Center in Houston. In the
Speaker 1: bouquet was a red rose for each of the seven
Speaker 1: Discovery crew members on board, plus a single white one
Speaker 1: in remembrance of those who had been lost in the
Speaker 1: space program. The bouquet included a short note, but no
Speaker 1: phone number or address for the sender for every manned
Speaker 1: mission that NASA has flown since the family has continued
Speaker 1: the tradition. Over more than three decades, the Sheltons have
Speaker 1: sent more than a hundred bouquets to mission Control all
Speaker 1: how stuff works. Also spoke with retired NASA Flight director
Speaker 1: Milt Heflin. He said, they've never missed one time. They've
Speaker 1: always been supportive. Mark and I talk every once in
Speaker 1: a while. He'll call me and I'll call him. It's
Speaker 1: a friendship that's lasted. They are just so dedicated to
Speaker 1: doing this and to showing this support. That's what makes
Speaker 1: this really really remarkable to me. They even sent a
Speaker 1: bouquet to Mission control for SpaceX test launch of its
Speaker 1: crew Dragon capsule on March two, twenty nineteen, which docked
Speaker 1: successfully at the International Space Station. The Crew Dragon was unmanned,
Speaker 1: but carried a censor laid in mannequin dubbed Ripley after
Speaker 1: the Space Explorer in the Alien movies. It was the
Speaker 1: first time the family sent to Bouquet for an unmanned mission,
Speaker 1: and the first one they sent after the spatial program ended.
Speaker 1: In this Bouquet also included a fake rose in honor
Speaker 1: of Ripley. Shelton said, this was like, we're back. We
Speaker 1: have a capsule that is capable of sup hoarding human life,
Speaker 1: a crew rated capsule, the condoct with the I S
Speaker 1: S in one with astronauts launching from US soil. Again,
Speaker 1: they've kept up the tradition. It was NASA Flight director Heflin,
Speaker 1: who spent forty seven years with NASA and supervised twenty
Speaker 1: Shuttle missions, for seven of which he was the lead
Speaker 1: flight director, who tracked down the Sheltons after receiving that
Speaker 1: first vase of roses. They talked briefly on the phone.
Speaker 1: As Shelton said in twenty nineteen, I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: I was thinking, You've got way too much to do
Speaker 1: to be talking with me. A few years later, with
Speaker 1: hef Line at Mission Control helming another Shuttle flight, another
Speaker 1: Bouquet arrived with a handwritten note from Terry. It read,
Speaker 1: in part, NASA and her projects and missions have always
Speaker 1: been a source of hope, pride, and inspiration to the
Speaker 1: people of the United States and more importantly, to the
Speaker 1: people all over the world. We all know the dedication
Speaker 1: of all of you associated with the Space Program to
Speaker 1: the successful co gletion of each mission and to the
Speaker 1: safety of those whose lives are in your hands. We
Speaker 1: send flowers each time because we care that y'all care.
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful for the things that have come out
Speaker 1: of the Space Program which help our lives and those
Speaker 1: of our children. And my daughter Mackenzie is most important
Speaker 1: in our lives, and we are grateful for what y'all
Speaker 1: do to improve the quality of her life. Almost fifty
Speaker 1: years after a human first walked on the Moon, Shelton
Speaker 1: and Hefflin still marvel what the Space program has accomplished,
Speaker 1: what it's still accomplishing, and look forward to what's next.
Speaker 1: Shelton said, miniaturization, health and medical improvement, and technological changes.
Speaker 1: We got this little phone in our hand, and it
Speaker 1: has so much power, and we can see a satellite
Speaker 1: image and a pretty close up view of where we
Speaker 1: live and the weather and what's coming and global communication.
Speaker 1: Are the studies of Earth that's really important, and we
Speaker 1: don't know in the future are we ever going to
Speaker 1: need to leave the planet? Exploration is just such a
Speaker 1: basic need we have as individ Jules and as civilizations.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Shelton and those like him, Heflin says, the
Speaker 1: more than seventeen thousands scientists, engineers, astronauts, teachers, and many
Speaker 1: other professionals who work for NASA feel the appreciation. Today's
Speaker 1: episode is based on the article One Family has sent
Speaker 1: flowers to NASA for more than thirty years on how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com, written by John Donovan. Brain Stuff
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