Words I never thought I'd say...

[rivka]

Bush's address is really beautiful. It hits exactly the right tone.

These men and women assumed great risk in this service to all humanity. In an age when space flight has come to seem almost routine, it is easy to overlook the dangers of travel by rocket and the difficulties of navigating the fierce outer atmosphere of the earth.

These astronauts knew the dangers, and they faced them willingly, knowing they had a high and noble purpose in life. Because of their courage and daring and idealism, we will miss them all the more. [...]

The cause in which they died will continue. Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on.

Comments

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind that there are contingency speeches that are on file... NASA has been saying in Congressional testimony for several years that another vehicle was likely to be lost at some point. It's likely that Bush's speech was pre-written, maybe even leftover from the previous administration... there are typically others on file for possible disasters (when there might not be time to carefully compose and vet the words before the President has to say *something*).