Ronald Reagan's Challenger Space Shuttle Speech

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The 1986 Challenger space shuttle crash was a horrific event. Seven crew members: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe all lost their lives 73 seconds after liftoff. The Challenger space shuttle crashed due to the failure of the primary O-ring. Basically, the O-ring failed and didn’t seal in time due to low temperatures. The president at the time was Ronald Reagan. Reagan gave a brief speech the same day as the crash. His primary goal of the speech was to mourn the loss of the crew members, show his sorrow and to reassure the citizens of America that everything was under control. President Reagan addressed the nation as a whole in this speech. More specifically he addressed …show more content…

He mentioned that America has never lost an astronaut in flight and that this was the first time. Reagan also mentioned that the last accident was 19 years ago. “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 journey continue.” This quote from Reagan’s speech highlights just how adamant he was about continuing space exploration. If space exploration was exterminated due to the crash, then they would have died in vain. “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.” He speaks on how the crew members were brave and full of courage, which shows that space exploration isn’t 100% safe. Reagan says “On this day 390 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.” He basically uses this story to show that the hunger for exploration has not