Tribute to the Men and Women of Challenger

This is the tribute that President Ronald Reagan gave in honor of the brave men and women who lost their lives on board the space shuttle Challenger. Even though he did not write this, the way he delivered it made it sound as if they were his words.


Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings
Sunward I have climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds- and done a hundred things you have not dreamed of- wheeled and soared and swung.
High in the sunlit silence- hovering there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
I’ve topped the windswept nights with easy grace,
Where never lark or even Eagle flew.
And, while the silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The highest untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.