'Future belongs to the brave’
NZPA-Reuter Washington The space shuttle disaster brought Government business to a halt and drew an emotional outpouring from President Reagan and stunned lawmakers.
News of yesterday’s fiery explosion prompted President Reagan to postpone his annual State of the Union message, interrupted top-level White House meetings and forced both houses of Congress to adjourn for the day. A visibly upset President Reagan told the American people in a televised address that it would not mean the end of United States efforts to conquer space.
“Sometimes we forget . we’ve only just begun
... What happened today won’t put an end to it,” he said.
To mourn the seven dead astronauts, Mr Reagan ordered all United States flags to be flown at half-mast until February 3. Mr Reagan praised the seven as “daring and brave” men and women with a special spirit.
“The future does not belong to the fainthearted. It belongs to the brave,” Mr Reagan said. “The Challenger seven were aware of the danger,” but they were "daring and brave and had that special grace and spirit”. He said he and his wife, Nancy, were “pained to the core — this is truly a national loss”. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration had planned to launch more than one shuttle flight a month during 1986, its busiest schedule ever.
Several previous shuttle flights had conducted military missions, including experiments for the strategic defence initiative (star wars) programme. In one of the tests, lasers were shot into space from Hawaii. Lawmakers in charge of funding the space programme said further flights must be halted until the cause of the accident was discovered.
“There may be delays that could go on for as much as a year with regard to future shuttle launches,” said Mr George Brown, a California Democrat who is a member of the House Committee on Science and Technology.
The Senate’s two accredited astronauts — John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, and Jake Garn, who last April became the first member of Congress to fly in the shuttle — said they were deeply moved. Mr Glenn said he always knew there would be a day like this, but “we had hoped to push this day back forever”.
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Press, 30 January 1986, Page 3
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371'Future belongs to the brave’ Press, 30 January 1986, Page 3
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