 In the early days of the Shuttle program, NASA was also eager to prove its capability to Congressional sponsors, and Senator Jake Garn and (then-Representative, later Senator) Bill Nelson were both given opportunities to fly on a Shuttle mission.As the Shuttle program expanded, NASA developed the Space Flight Participant Program, where civilians, with an emphasis on creative people, would be sent into space to increase public awareness of NASA's mission.The initial goal was that two or three shuttle missions a year would include a civilian participant.