Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd planned to speak
to you tonight to report on the state of the Union, but the events of
earlier today have led me to change those plans. Today is a day for mourning
and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the
shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our
country. This is truly a national loss.
Nineteen years ago, almost to the day,
we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground. But we've
never lost an astronaut in flight. We've never had a tragedy like this. And
perhaps we've forgotten the courage it took for the crew of the shuttle. But
they, the Challenger Seven, were aware of the dangers, but overcame them and
did their jobs brilliantly. We mourn seven heroes: Michael Smith,
Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison
Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe.
We mourn their loss as a nation together.
For the families of the seven,
we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy. But we feel the
loss, and we're thinking about you so very much. Your loved ones were daring
and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit that says,
"Give me a challenge, and I'll meet it with joy." They had a hunger to
explore the universe and discover its truths. They wished to serve, and they
did. They served all of us.
We've grown used to wonders in this
century. It's hard to dazzle us. But for twenty-five years the United States
space program has been doing just that. We've grown used to the idea of
space, and, perhaps we forget that we've only just begun. We're still
pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.
And I want to say something to the
schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the
shuttle's take-off. I know it's hard to understand, but sometimes painful
things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and
discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons.
The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The
Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow
them.
I've always had great faith in and
respect for our space program. And what happened today does nothing to
diminish it. We don't hide our space program. We don't keep secrets and
cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That's the way freedom
is, and we wouldn't change it for a minute.
We'll continue our quest in space. There
will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more
volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our
hopes and our journeys continue.
I want to add that I wish I could talk
to every man and woman who works for NASA, or who worked on this mission and
tell them: "Your dedication and professionalism have moved and impressed us
for decades. And we know of your anguish. We share it."
There's a coincidence today. On this day
three hundred and ninety years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake
died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great
frontiers were the oceans, and a historian later said, "He lived by the sea,
died on it, and was buried in it." Well, today, we can say of the Challenger
crew: Their dedication was, like Drake's, complete.
The crew of the space shuttle Challenger
honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never
forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared
for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth"
to "touch the face of God."
Thank you.
