alexpgp | (no subject)

From Dan Hansen's blog, the speech Bush should have delivered:

"My fellow Americans, today the Space Shuttle Columbia was lost. This is a terrible tragedy, and our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of the brave astronauts the world lost today.

But the people who flew that flight knew their risks, as did the myriad engineers, scientists, and other specialists that have made it their life's work to help mankind fulfill its destiny of exploration and discovery. They chose to fly rockets into space despite those risks, because they believed in what they were doing.

Today's accident is a challenge, but the history of the last two years has shown us that the American people are fully prepared to rise to any challenge that confronts them. The brave astronauts on that shuttle overcame many challenges on their journey from childhood and a child's dreams to being the competant, tough professionals who chose to ride pillars of flame to achieve those dreams.

We will honor the memory of the seven brave souls lost this morning. We will honor it by ensuring that their childhood dreams do not die in tragedy. We WILL go back into space, and soon. We will not just overcome this tragedy, we will transcend it. We will try harder, spend more, and continue to take risks. More astronauts may die in the future. We will mourn them, but at the same time we understand that great achievements come at great expense.

In several days, we will be announcing the new NASA budget. Many of you probably expect that this budget will now be scaled back. Some of you may think that we should be humbled, shut down our manned spaceflight programs, close our space station, and shy away from the risks of exploration.

But we will not do that. I will be announcing greatly enhanced funding for newer, more powerful rockets. New, more ambitious manned programs.

And we will honor these seven brave people by creating a small memorial to them, and the hands of a NASA astronaut will place that memorial on the surface of Mars. This is the way that Americans honor their brave pioneers - by carrying their pioneering spirit forward. God bless every one of those seven. They will not be forgotten."

And on that note, I will cease posting for the day.

Cheers...