 Mr. President, this is Reagan, families of the Challenger crew, other members of the NASA family, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for coming here today to honor seven brave Americans, the crew of the Spaceship Challenger. Dick Scoby, Mike Smith, Judy Resnick, Ron McNair, Al Anazuka, Greg Jarvis, and Kristen McAuliffe were explorers who blazed the trail for the rest of us. Their courage and dedication represents all its best in each of us and in America. The Challenger crew took something of all of us aloft on Tuesday. Their dreams of discovery are our dreams, and the men and the women of that flight will always live in our thoughts and in our hearts. I pray that families and friends will remember our pride and our gratitude and find some refuge in its warmth. God bless them all. We are gathered here today as a family. A family that shares a common dream, common goal, common commitment, and now a common tragic and devastating loss. And as families do, we have drawn together to remember with love and faith seven who embodied in a very special way that dream we all possess. Dick, Mike, Judy, Al, Ron, Greg, Kristen. Shall we pause for a moment of prayer and meditation? O thou whom we call by various names, approached by several paths, and yet all acknowledged as the source of life. Thy greatness is seen in this vast and wondrous universe. We turn now to thee because we need the assurance of a love equally great and wondrous. To feel that underneath are the everlasting arms, and to know that the hand that holds us is a hand we trust. We come here grateful for the many ways we have known those whom today we mourn as husband, wife, father, mother, daughter, son, colleague, neighbor, and friend. Each brings his or her own memories of love and laughter, of strength and tenderness, of enthusiasm and joy, skill and courage. And we are grateful for the privilege of having known them, having our lives touched by their lives, being bound by ties of love and care. And now we pray for those who most keenly feel this loss. May they assuredly feel the love that surrounds them, the caring that reaches out to them. May we be bearers of thy spirit of love, so that together we may know not only grief, but also the grandeur and the grace of life. Amen. A reading for hope and strength from the 46 Psalms. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. God will help her right early. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has wrought desolations in the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the chariots with fire. Be still, know that I am God. I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. We come together today to mourn the loss of seven brave Americans to share the grief that we all feel and perhaps in that sharing to find the strength to bear our sorrow and the courage to look for the seeds of hope. Our nation's loss is first a profound personal loss to the family and the friends and the loved ones of our shuttle astronauts. To those they left behind, the mothers, the fathers, the husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, yes, and especially the children. All of America stands beside you in your time of sorrow. What we say today is only an inadequate expression of what we carry in our hearts. Words pale in the shadow of grief, they seem insufficient even to measure the brave sacrifice of those you loved and we so admired. Their truest testimony will not be in the words we speak, but in the way they led their lives and in the way they lost their lives. With dedication, honor, and an unquenchable desire to explore this mysterious and beautiful universe, the best we can do is remember our seven astronauts, our Challenger Seven, remember them as they lived, bringing life and love and joy to those who knew them and pride to a nation. They came from all parts of this great country, from South Carolina to Washington State, Ohio to Mohawk, New York, Hawaii to North Carolina to Concord, New Hampshire. They were so different, yet in their mission, their quest, they held so much in common. We remember Dick Scoby, the commander who spoke the last words we heard from the Space Shuttle Challenger. He served as a fighter pilot in Vietnam, earning many medals for bravery, later as a test pilot of advanced aircraft before joining the space program. Danger was a familiar companion to Commander Scoby. We remember Michael Smith, who earned enough medals as a combat pilot to cover his chest, including the Navy, distinguished flying cross, three air medals, and the Vietnamese cross of gallantry with silver star. In gratitude from a nation he fought to keep free. We remember Judith Resnick, known as JR to her friends, always smiling, always eager to make a contribution, finding beauty in the music she played on her piano in her off hours. We remember Ellison Onizuka, who was a child running barefoot through the coffee fields and macadamia groves of Hawaii, dreamed of someday traveling to the moon. Being an eagle scout, he said, had helped him soar to the impressive achievements of his career. We remember Ronald McNair, who said that he learned perseverance in the cotton fields of South Carolina. His dream was to live aboard the space station, performing experiments, and playing his saxophone in the weightlessness of space. Oron, we will miss your saxophone, and we will build your space station. We remember Gregory Jarvis, on that ill-fated flight he was carrying with him a flag of his university in Buffalo, New York. A small token, he said, to the people who unlocked his future. We remember Krista McAuliffe, who captured the imagination of the entire nation, inspiring us with her pluck, her restless spirit of discovery, a teacher not just to her students, but to an entire people, instilling us all with the excitement of this journey we ride into the future. We will always remember them, these skilled professionals, scientists, and adventurers, these artists and teachers, and family men and women, and we will cherish each of their stories. Stories of triumph and bravery, stories of true American heroes. On the day of the disaster, our nation held a vigil by our television sets. In one cruel moment, our exhilaration turned to horror. We waited and watched and tried to make sense of what we had seen. That night, I listened to a call-in program on the radio. People of every age spoke of their sadness and the pride they felt in our astronauts. Across America, we are reaching out, holding hands, and finding comfort in one another. The sacrifice of your loved ones has stirred the soul of our nation. And through the pain, our hearts have been opened to a profound truth. The future is not free. The story of all human progress is one of a struggle against all odds. We learned again that this America, which Abraham Lincoln called the last best hope of man on earth, was built on heroism and noble sacrifice. It was built by men and women like our seven-star voyagers, who answered a call beyond duty, who gave more than was expected or required, and who gave it little thought of worldly reward. We think back to the pioneers of an earlier century. The sturdy souls who took their families and their big longings and set out into the frontier of the American West. Often they met with terrible hardship. Along the Oregon Trail, you could still see the grave markers of those who fell on the way. But grief only steeled them to the journey ahead. Today, the frontier is space and the boundaries of human knowledge. Sometimes when we reach for the stars, we fall short, but we must pick ourselves up again and press on, despite the pain. Our nation is indeed fortunate that we can still draw on immense reservoirs of courage, character, and fortitude, that we're still blessed with heroes like those of the Space Shuttle Challenger. Dick Scobey knew that every launching of a Space Shuttle is a technological miracle, and he said if something ever does go wrong, I hope that doesn't mean the end to the Space Shuttle program. Every family member I talked to asked specifically that we continue the program, that that is what their departed loved one would want above all else. We will not disappoint them. Today we promised Dick Scobey and his crew that their dream lives on, that the future they work so hard to build will become reality. The dedicated men and women of NASA have lost seven members of their family. Still, they too must forge ahead with a space program that is effective, safe, and efficient, but bold and committed. Man will continue his conquest of space to reach out for new goals and ever greater achievements. That is the way we shall commemorate our seven Challenger heroes. Dick, Mike, Judy, Elle, Ron, Greg, and Krista, your families and your country, mourn your passing. We bid you goodbye. We will never forget you. For those who knew you well and loved you, the pain will be deep and enduring. A nation too will long feel the loss of her seven sons and daughters, her seven good friends. We can find consolation only in faith, for we know in our hearts that you who flew so high and so proud now make your home beyond the stars, safe in God's promise of eternal life. May God bless you all and give you comfort in this difficult time. Will you please rise and join in the singing of America, The Beautiful.