Who's Been Sending NASA Flowers for Thirty Years?

When NASA returned to crewed missions following the Challenger disaster, one family decided to send a simple thank-you: flowers. Learn how this gesture became a 30-year tradition in today's episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/shelton-family-flowers-to-nasa.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
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

(00:24):
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

(00:46):
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

(01:09):
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

(01:30):
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

(01:51):
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,

(02:15):
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

(02:36):
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

(02:57):
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

(03:18):
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

(03:39):
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,

(04:01):
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

(04:23):
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,

(04:43):
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

(05:05):
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

(05:26):
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.

(05:49):
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

(06:12):
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

(06:34):
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