What is the historical context of President Ronald Reagan's 1986 speech?

Answer 1

An excerpt:

"I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them. I've always had great faith in and respect for our space program, and what happened today does nothing to diminish it. We don't hide our space program. We don't keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That's the way freedom is, and we wouldn't change it for a minute. 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 journeys continue." -- President Ronald Reagan, 1986

The Challenger exploded just after take-off, just after the "throttle-up" sequence was initiated. "At T+68, theCAPCOM informed the crew that they were "GO at throttle up," and Commander Dick Scobee confirmed the call. His response, "Roger, GO at throttle up," was the last communication from Challenger on the air-to-ground loop." (Wikipedia) The explosion occurred at 73 seconds after lift-off, due to an O-ring failure. All of the 7-member crew died. The crew included: Teacher-in-Space payload specialist Sharon Christa McAuliffe; payload specialist Gregory Jarvis; and astronauts Judith A. Resnik, mission specialist; Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, mission commander; Ronald E. McNair, mission specialist; Mike J. Smith, pilot; and Ellison S. Onizuka, mission specialist.

Memory:

I was traveling between home care patients on January 28th, 1986. The radio was on in the car. The roads weren't too bad for a NE US winter day. I had just made the turn onto a 4-lane highway just before the underpass for a major interstate highway. I hadn't closely followed the coming space shuttle mission, but I knew that children everywhere were excited about the first teacher on board, Sharon Christa McAuliffe. I had seen her on a TV news conference and was impressed with her passion and joy about teaching kids from space. At 11:39am EDT, the radio reported that The Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded on take-off for its 10th flight. I audibly gasped and began to cry. I had not realized how much the pre-coverage of this flight had seeped into my sub-consciousness. I could imagine children at schools watching the flight as it happened... It reminded me of when I was in grade school and as a class we watched black and white scenes of John F. Kennedy's Dallas, Tx motorcade, his shooting, and later, his funeral procession through Washington, D.C. streets. I was still crying when I reached my next patient. The Challenger disaster stunned all Americans, as much for the lives lost, as well as wondering about the effect on future NASA flights.

Answer 2

President Ronald Reagan's 1986 speech was delivered in the midst of the Cold War, at a time when tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union were high. The speech focused on the importance of freedom and democracy in the face of global threats, particularly nuclear proliferation. It also addressed domestic issues such as tax reforms and economic growth.