 had announced but left a little something out. It should have been at least Ann Company. But Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, Mike Collins, Jim Beggs, and all our Apollo astronauts, the men and women of NASA here and those watching from NASA locations around the country, our friends out at the Space Pavilion at the World's Fair in New Orleans, ladies and gentlemen. It's a great pleasure to welcome you here to the White House. And as I look around, I can't help thinking that I haven't seen so many stars in one place since I was on the back lot at Warner Brothers. We celebrate today a unique moment in the history of mankind. Eagles touched down near the southwestern shore of the Sea of Tranquility. But it's hard to believe that 15 years have passed since we first heard Neil Armstrong's inspiring words. And I know it's been that long, but why don't any of you look any older? Today's celebration also brings back a very fond memory. In August 1969, after a long quarantine, the White House honored the Apollo 11 crew with a dinner in California. As governor, I had the opportunity to introduce the president, and I remember looking out at our dinner guests, ambassadors, and other representatives from 83 countries, 44 state governors, 50 members of the Congress, 14 members of the Cabinet, and the leadership of NASA and thinking that the men and women of NASA changed forever our concept of the universe and our relation to it. No longer could there be any mistake about the common heritage and common destiny of all people. The Apollo program was a noble achievement of the mind, the heart, the spirit, and the most ambitious and complex program ever undertaken in peacetime. The lunar landings were a dazzling triumph of exploration. The Mayflower did sail on. Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee opened the trail, and we'll always remember their tragic sacrifice. But the program went on, and 12 Americans landed on the moon. By the end of the Apollo program, the Columbia, the Endeavour, the America, and the other command nodules had returned 27 Apollo astronauts safely from the moon and its vicinity. And oh, how our astronauts, with their quiet confidence, superb professionalism and inner strength, lifted our feelings, our spirits and our feeling of goodwill. Apollo enriched our intellectual and economic life and awakened us to mankind's boundless horizon. We carried a new sense of pride and became more confident that we've only seen the beginning of what a free and courageous people can do. And of course, the Apollo program was a supreme test of technology always at and often beyond the cutting edge. Never before had the requirements of reliability, accuracy, and efficiency been as demanding. Never before had the quality assurance testing for each of the thousands and thousands of components been as relentless. And our developers and inventors responded with unprecedented creativity. Our finest minds in government, industry, and universities all pulled together, and one sparkling technical innovation followed another. Which one of you or was it someone else that, however, that sat there at take off and said that your mind was on the fact that this had been built by the lowest bidder. But all the while, our space research and engineering served the down to earth needs of our own people and people everywhere. The Apollo project spawned communications, weather, navigation and earth resource satellites, and many new industries like solid state electronics, medical electronics, and computer sciences. It opened the door to exciting scientific and commercial opportunities, opportunities like the programmable heart pacemaker, which uses technology first developed to send coded instructions to orbiting satellites. Cordless home appliances and surgical instruments grew out of requirements for Apollo's lunar experiments. Even the fabric roof of Pontiac Michigan's Silver Dome, the home of the Detroit Lions, was made from the product developed for NASA's space suit. The era of Apollo helped us build a technological base that was second to none, but we've only touched the edge of possibilities in space. The Apollo experience was only a beginning for America. From Apollo came the shuttle, the world's first true space transportation system, and another victory for the American spirit. The space shuttle opened a new era to pursue the many scientific, educational, industrial, and commercial opportunities of space. And as long as we challenge our imagination and aim high, there's no end to the potential of space. There's never a time when we can stop moving forward, when we can stop dreaming. And so this past January in my State of the Union address, I challenged our nation to develop a permanently manned space station and to do so within a decade. And I'm very pleased that the Congress has authorized funds enabling NASA to take the first steps in the design of America's space station. The footprints on the moon showed us that America's future can be determined by our dreams and our visions. The shuttle and our space station will help make those dreams come true. Our freedom and well-being are tied to new achievements and pushing back new frontiers. We'll push back those frontiers and open new doors to discovery, opportunity, and progress. I also said in that State of the Union address that we would soon develop initiatives to help promote private sector investment in space, and we're now embarking on that course. We'll do all we can to ensure an industry that industry has a routine access to space and a suitable, reliable place to work there. And we'll do this without needless regulatory constraints. 11 successful shuttle flights mean that we're on the verge of a space transportation system that can dependably support the space industries. And the benefits our people can receive from the commercial use of space literally dazzle the imagination. Together we can produce rare medicines with the potential of saving thousands of lives and hundreds of millions of dollars. We can manufacture superchips that improve our competitive position in the world computer market. We can build space observatories enabling scientists to see out to the edge of the universe. And we can produce special alloys and biological materials that benefit greatly from a zero gravity environment. By accepting the challenge of space, we'll carry forward the same courage and indomitable spirit that made us a great nation and that carried our Apollo astronauts to the moon. As you know, Dr. George Lowe, the guiding light behind the Apollo program passed away earlier this week. Dr. Lowe began his career as a research scientist and progressed to key leadership positions in the manned space flight program, including manager of the Apollo spacecraft program. He played a leading role in all the Apollo missions and directed the Apollo 11 flight. Dr. Lowe also served as deputy administrator and acting administrator of NASA and was instrumental in the planning of the shuttle program. For the past eight years, he continued his lifelong efforts to build a better tomorrow while serving as president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. We're grateful for what George Lowe has done and the ideals he stood for, and we'll miss him very much. I know you joined Nancy and me in extending heartfelt condolences to the Lowe family, but I'm sure George Lowe will be pleased that we're honoring our achievements and the promise of space with a proclamation designating today as Space Exploration Day. Let us use this occasion as a commitment to our future to the best of America, and let it be a reminder of America's spirit of exploration, our desire to cross new horizons and to learn more about ourselves and the world around us. And now I will sign the proclamation. I thank you and God bless you all, and I can't help but think of all the things I've been saying here about the progress that's been made. I, a one-time second lieutenant of horse cavalry, will now sign the Space Exploration Day. Mr. President, what a wonderful occasion this is. We have here today a very large fraction of the people over the first quarter century of the space age conceived, executed, managed, and flew those flights that made their mark on the last quarter of the century. May I also speak on behalf of these people and say how much we share your belief that the progress made during that first faltering two decades or plus of the space age has been important to our country and citizens around the world, and how much we appreciate your commitment to continued progress in these areas as expressed in your State of the Union address and confirmed here today. And on behalf of all of us at NASA, my crew here on the stage, may we leave you with a small memento representing the 15th anniversary of this flight where we carried this American flag to the moon and returned it. You're still beyond all of you. My capacity to imagine, I remember my first time out there at Edwards for the landing of the shuttle, and they hurried us up on the platform and said it's coming in. And so I hurried up there and started watching the sky and I said, where is it? And they said it's over Honolulu. We're just in time.