President Ronald Reagan's Challenger Explosion

On January 28th, 1986, Ronald Reagan used his stature as president to show sympathy for the country in the light of tragedy, in his speech entitled “Speech on the Challenger Disaster.” His main point expounds on the importance of the Challenger Disaster in the history of space exploration. He supports this claim by first explaining the effect the disaster had on the public, then offering his sympathy for the families of the astronauts as well as the entire nation, and finally declaring that the country must continue to explore space so the deaths of the astronauts were not in vain. Through Reagan’s use of rhetorical appeals, tone, and rhetorical tools he effectively persuades the American people to maintain confidence in NASA and in space exploration,

Seventy three seconds into its 10th flight, on January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean, killing the seven crew members on board [1]. The Challenger was the second space shuttle constructed by NASA and had completed nine successful missions prior to the disaster. Following the accident, the shuttle program was suspended for 32 months as President Ronald Regan appointed a Commission, chaired by William P. Rogers and known as the Rogers Commission, to investigate the cause of the accident [1].

On January 28, 1986, a day that was supposed to be filled with excitement and exploration, suddenly turned into a day filled with tragedy and sadness. The space shuttle Challenger was supposed to carry a seven member crew into orbit with one unique member along for this particular mission. Christa McAuliffe was supposed to be the first teacher to go into space as a member of the Teacher in Space Project. Due to this occasion, the media coverage and the number of viewers of this mission was extensive, particularly in schools across the nation. The Challenger lifted off shortly after 11:30 A.M., but tragically only seventy three seconds after takeoff it exploded sending debris and the seven crew members back to earth and into the Atlantic

Reagan then reassured that the space program would continue to operate and “what happened today does nothing to diminish it”. This message sought to protect the ongoing space programs and was dedicated to the last sub-audience of his speech: the NASA people. He acknowledged their hard work and expressed sympathy for their loss of friends and coworkers.

It is January 28th, 1986, seven members of the Challenger Space Shuttle take off for an exploration of a lifetime, but never return. The entire United States is watching this tragedy unfold. Later that evening Ronald Reagan, the president, gets on national television to deliver the State of the Union Address. Instead, he gives the “Speech on the Challenger Disaster.” President Reagan uses tone, rhetorical appeals, and rhetorical tools, to commend and mourn the seven with the Nation.

Reagan uses a solemnly optimistic tone that lets the audience know that he too is mourning as they are, but his faith in the NASA space program is still strong without disregarding the tragedy that they have at hand. All at the same time, giving subtle hints to the Soviet Union (which he knew was watching), that this accident wouldn’t allow the space program to end, and that space would continue to be explored. Reagan uses mostly pathos and ethos throughout his speech, to allow the nation to understand that he is a normal person like they are, feeling the same emotions that they felt, and that he would not allow those feelings to create fear or distinguish the nation's curiosity. He does this by using pathos to allow the audience to feel emotionally

When reading this line of the speech, I can tell that Reagan really recognized the pain and applauds the sacrifice that the astronauts made. The president also reinsured the audience that the astronauts were heroic and unique, without overstating the

President, Ronald W. Reagan, in his speech, “Explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger Address to the Nation,” Reagan expresses the grief and loss due to the tragedy that has occurred to the Challenger. Regan’s purpose was to acknowledge the terrible explosion of the Challenger, witnessed by majority of the people including children and killed all seven crew members: Michael Smith, Dick, Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa MC Auliffe; although despite such horrible incident, Regan had insisted that the nation should continue the space program. He adopts a empathetic and encouraging tone in order to show his consideration to the victimized families and to promote the continuation of the space program as a sign of moving forward. Therefore, in Reagan’s speech, he conveyed his empathy and the will to go on with the use of rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos, allusion, and anaphora.

In the speech that Ronald Reagan gave about the Space Shuttle Challenger gave peace of mind to the nation that was mourning about such a devastating event that they witnessed. The Space Shuttle Challenger was the first space shuttle that had a normal person on it and was going to be a huge leap forward for the space program. But the shuttle had a malfunction and blew up during the employment of going into space. They were not sure what exactly happened when it blew up, they just knew that the whole nation just witnessed a tragic event live on the radio and television. It was Ronald Reagan’s job to address the grieving public about what happened and to express their condolences, but also express their strength that would carry the nation through.

As discussed earlier, approximately 17 percent of Americans witnessed the explosion of the space shuttle on live broadcast and the rest soon learned about the tragic event through newspaper, radio or television. The whole country was in shock, grief and fear. That’s why Reagan chose to address to all of American people at the beginning of this speech “we share this pain with all of the people of our country” and “this is truly a national loss.”

　　President Ronald Reagan inherited the space policy of his predecessor, Jimmy Carter and was not satisfied with its current objectives and lack of direction (Logsdon, 1995). He put together a transition team to draft a new chapter for NASA which was left in an “untenable position” by Carter’s lack of direction for the agency. The NASA transition team leader, George Low, remarked that NASA can be “the best in American accomplishment and inspiration for all citizens” (Logsdon, 1995). The team provided input to Reagan that would drive space policy during his eight year tenure.

After the seven astronauts, engineers, and Christa McAuliffe, a history teacher selected to be part of the mission, were killed in the terrible shuttle Challenger explosion, Ronald Reagan had the unbelievable job of explaining it to the country. Millions across the country were watching as the shuttle caught in flames and then exploded only 73 seconds after lift off. It was later determined that two rubber O-rings, designed to separate the sections of the rocket booster, had failed due to cold temperatures on the morning of the launch (http://www.history.com/topics/challenger-disaster). Reagan gave his speech at 5 pm on January 28, 1986 from the Oval Office at the White House, broadcasted live on nationwide radio and television. Reagan knew that he had to “make it plain to them that life does go on and you don’t back up and quit some worthwhile endeavor because of tragedy”. Reagan called in a relatively unknown speechwriter who would go on to pen some of the most famous phrases uttered by presidents, like President George H.W Bush’s “thousand points of light”, Peggy Noonan. Reagan started his speech simply with, “Today is a day for

While seated in the Oval Office of the White house, January 28, 1986 President Ronald Reagan delivers his speech The Challenger Disaster; hours after the space shuttle The Challenger explodes while in take off. Thousands witnessed this horrifying event live in person and on television. This mission was very unique allowing the first civilian to ever be allowed in space during a mission. She was aboard The Challenger as an observer in the NASA Teacher in Space Program. Ironically, nineteen years before this disaster, three astronauts were tragically lost in an accident on the ground. President Reagan remembers those astronauts that were lost not only the day of the disaster, but also those who were lost nineteen years before. He conducts

On 1st of February, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia exploded when it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere after finished a 16 days mission in space. All seven astronauts were dead because of this incident. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had stopped the space shuttle program for more than two years to investigate this tragedy. In the 16 days period, the astronauts did approximately 80 experiments on different categories, for example, life science and material science [1]. An investigation later has found out that the disaster was caused by a problem on the day that took off on 16th of January.

One of the greatest tragedies in history occurred on January 8, 1986. Shortly after it was launched, the space shuttle Challenger exploded, killing seven astronauts, including Christa McAuliffe, a New Hampshire schoolteacher chosen to be the first teacher in space (“Challenger Disaster, n.d.). The explosion was caused by a failure of the O-rings of the solid rocket boosters. The O-rings were unable to seat properly, causing the leaking of hot combustion gases, which burnt through the external fuel tank. The malfunction was not any one person’s or organization’s fault; it was caused by many factors including the decision to launch despite the cold weather, the poor communication between management levels of the National Aeronautics and