The Kindness of Strangers
EmailThey began to show up after the Challenger disaster. In 1988, during NASA’s first shuttle flight after the accident, a bouquet of roses was delivered to Mission Control in Houston. Seven red ones, plus one white. There was a note attached — best wishes and a safe flight from Mark and Terry Shelton and their daughter MacKenzie — but it didn’t say who they were or where they lived. After a bit of hesitation, controllers put the roses in a vase near the flight director’s control console, a bit of color amid readout screens and flight plan booklets. Milt Heflin, a veteran flight director, was touched and intrigued. "Frankly, people didn’t send things like that to mission control," says NASA’s James Hartsfield. Heflin called the florists who had delivered them. They were at first reluctant to give out personal information. It turned out the Sheltons were just an American family, like yours or mine, from the Dallas suburbs. Mark Shelton, a computer engineer, had been a space buff since childhood. His wife Terry is in the clothing business. MacKenzie, a toddler in 1988, is now 23 and studying to be a special-education teacher. "I thought it would be nice to remind them the public is out there, and they care," said Mark Shelton in a phone interview. "It’s a dangerous job the astronauts have, and so many people are responsible for their lives, and they take it very seriously." The flowers have kept coming, one bouquet during every shuttle flight. There will always be as many colored roses as there are astronauts on the mission (most shuttles carry seven), plus one white one. Heflin asked why. In memory of the astronauts who gave their lives, said the Sheltons. This month’s mission, STS-119, flown by the shuttle Discovery, was the hundredth since the Sheltons began their quiet tradition, and NASA invited them down to Houston for a ceremony of appreciation. "I think it means so much because we never asked for it," said Heflin. "We never expected it. We believe it truly represents the sentiment of a large part of the public, as well as a very personal gesture." (Photo: the bouquet for STS-114 in 2005, the first flight after the Columbia accident. Courtesy NASA.)
Steve Jobs' FBI File Released 
Graffiti Artist Took Facebook Stock instead of Cash 
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
nice people
Posted by: justsane | March 27, 2009, 6:20 pm 6:20 pm
If you read “Failure is no Option” by Gene Kranz you’ll see that back in the Gemini & Apollo missions a mystery lady sent flowers to Mission Control for every flight. Mission Control would put them in a place TV cameras would pick them up, so the woman would know Mission Control got them and appreciated them. THanks to the Skelton’s for re-starting this tradition.
Posted by: VC | March 27, 2009, 6:30 pm 6:30 pm
ABCnews – Instead of “The mysterious case of the space flowers,” your Top Headline should have read, “Space flowers mystery, solved.” Although it was a nice story, I thought I was going to be intrigued by a mystery and had to read the story three times before I realized there wasn’t one and that the mystery had been solved. Thanks anyway.
Posted by: Paula | March 27, 2009, 6:43 pm 6:43 pm
great story, nice to reaffirm the decency present in the general public amidst the usual news of the day
Posted by: Alex | March 27, 2009, 6:44 pm 6:44 pm
So very thoughtful. thank you!!!
Posted by: Justme8811 | March 27, 2009, 6:48 pm 6:48 pm
My wife just loves flowers…we need more people like that.
Posted by: Herbert Wetherby | March 27, 2009, 6:53 pm 6:53 pm
This is just a really cool story!! Mark and Terry Shelton prove that there are good people out in this world. I’m sure they did not do this in order to gain any fame but they deserve the biggest Thank You for lifting the spirits of those at NASA. Also, I am sure that the families that have lost someone in the accidents at NASA appreciate that a perfect stranger has thought about their loved ones!!
Great story on a Friday!!
Posted by: JustJames4Once | March 27, 2009, 6:56 pm 6:56 pm
How wonderful to actually read something heartwarming for a change. The Sheltons are great Americans—fabulous people.
Posted by: JB | March 27, 2009, 7:29 pm 7:29 pm
Thanks for this great story, perfect for a Friday afternoon. Hope we all try to have a kind smile with us all weekend.
Posted by: Ale | March 27, 2009, 7:44 pm 7:44 pm
God Bless this family for their selfless act.
I agree with other posters – this is a great human interest piece to read on a Friday evening. If anyone at ABC News even reads these posts….hey, d’ya think we can get MORE news like this and less of the junk that’s being reported on now?
It would be greatly appreciated!
Posted by: LuvnUSA | March 27, 2009, 8:00 pm 8:00 pm
Thank you for this heartwarming and feel good story. So much depressing news lately, it was really nice to just smile and think about how excited this country used to get every time there was a rocket launched with our men and women aboard. Now, everyone is so jaded, no one is watching these events any more. What a shame. Thank you to the Shelton family.
Posted by: Sandy | March 27, 2009, 8:54 pm 8:54 pm
Love is every where, I love ABC
Posted by: Gene | March 27, 2009, 9:30 pm 9:30 pm
Beautiful people.
Posted by: Gabriel Michas | March 28, 2009, 1:39 am 1:39 am
What a really nice and pleasing story to read. I’ll always love our space program.
Thank you NASA and a big thank you to the Sheltons.
Posted by: Bill | March 28, 2009, 1:54 am 1:54 am
Wonderful people. Its possible to do good. Great lesson for my life. Thanks.
Posted by: Question | March 28, 2009, 2:56 am 2:56 am
What a sweet heart.
Posted by: Yabin Li | March 28, 2009, 3:42 am 3:42 am
I wish I had extra money enough to send flowers to NASA a hundred times…
Posted by: Julie | March 28, 2009, 6:14 am 6:14 am
And the “mystery” about this is…?
Posted by: parrishkline | March 28, 2009, 7:09 am 7:09 am
a caring, thoughtful act, how rare today. For both the Shelton’s And A B C
Posted by: David Natale | March 28, 2009, 10:44 am 10:44 am
A great example of a “random act of kindness.”
Posted by: Todd | March 28, 2009, 1:33 pm 1:33 pm
Note from Ned Potter–
I’m glad people enjoyed the Sheltons’ story. Writing it was a nice way for me to round out a Friday too. Apologies to those who were bothered by the suggestion of mystery in the headline linking you to this post, but, well, the NASA people I spoke to recalled there was a sense of mystery when the flowers first showed up.
Posted by: Ned Potter | March 28, 2009, 1:45 pm 1:45 pm
now that we all know that this bouquet of roses is put directly on the directors console during every shuttle flight, it is an invitations for a spy to have a perfect fly on the wall to hear every strategic discussion about every important factor in a shuttle flight. therefore those bouquets of roses should be put either in the garbage where they belong, or in an off base location in a secretaries room, but absolutely not, repeat not, on the desk of the head of space shuttle flights. they could be coated with poison, there could be a bug in on of the flowers, and of couse last but not least, the damn thing can and eventually will tip over and pour water into the computer.
Posted by: healnghanz | March 29, 2009, 8:46 am 8:46 am
Thanks to the Sheltons from another space buff. The white rose is an especially moving touch!
Posted by: Ed | March 29, 2009, 9:19 pm 9:19 pm
What a wonderful way to start my Monday morning! I wish more people would act like the Shelton’s and show some support for the men and women who are too often under-appreciated. While I don’t exactly send them roses, I make sure that every Christmas, I give my mailman and sanitation workers a big tin of homemade cookies. :) Just my way of showing them that their hard work does not go unnoticed.
Posted by: K-Chan | March 30, 2009, 8:55 am 8:55 am
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Ann
Posted by: Ann | April 1, 2009, 10:30 pm 10:30 pm
It is nice to see something postitive in the news!
Posted by: Christina Viering | April 4, 2009, 8:25 pm 8:25 pm
I’m always saying “NASA rocks!” Have been boosting the space program since I was a kid in the 1950′s. Now I need to tack on a follow-up: “The Sheltons rock!” Thanks, ABC.
Posted by: Mekhong Kurt | July 1, 2009, 9:27 am 9:27 am