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On Receiving the Challenger Center Presidential Award

President George Bush

Nine years ago, an inspiring idea blossomed in the midst of great pain and sorrow. The idea was in a special way a powerful expression of a uniquely American trait: the ability to forge triumph from adversity.

The creation of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education and the founding of Challenger Centers across the country was a remarkable demonstration of strength and goodwill and an abundance of faith. Just as remarkable has been the good work that has come out of these centers of hope and learning and inspiration. I think it's wonderful seeing these kids here tonight.

So tonight we celebrate the continuation of a dream and the power of an idea. Through their work, the people of the Challenger Centers have taught thousands of youngsters the values which have, for more than two centuries, made our country strong and vibrant. Those who have been touched by a Challenger Center have learned about teamwork, about challenge and response, about dealing with adversity and learning to solve problems, and perhaps most importantly, about the fundamental lessons of human interaction.

It has been said before, but it certainly bears repeating—especially tonight: the dream is alive. And you have made it grow.

The hopes and dreams of the Challenger crew were as varied as their backgrounds. They came from many places and more experiences, but they came together as a team, united by the power of an idea so simple and yet, so powerful: to teach.

Along the way, they hoped to inspire and make real in the hearts of our young people the certainty that dreams do come true, that adventure and exploration and discovery await those who take the time to prepare and have the will to make it happen.

Dick Scobee, Mike Smith, Greg Jarvis, Judy Resnik, Ron McNair, Ellison Onizuka, and the remarkable schoolteacher, Christa McAuliffe, continue to live on in our hearts. We honor their memory tonight; but moreover, the Challenger Center honors their memory—what they stood for—every day they open their doors.

You've come a long way in those ten years, but challenges lie ahead. As I see it, it boils down to two great challenges. The first is to continue to help the Challenger Centers grow. From its first Learning Center in Houston in 1988, the Learning Centers have spread to twenty—five cities. More than 600,000 students, teachers, and parents have been a part of Challenger Center programs, and thousands more have benefited from the teacher training programs. We must continue to nurture these efforts.

The second task is perhaps a more daunting one—but no less important. it is to see that the spirit of exploration and discovery continues to endure in this country. It's to make sure that American space exploration continues to push back the frontier on into the next century.

Of course, it won't be easy. The space program is confronted with its own problems these days...adversity, technical problems, the drive to balance the federal budget...As President, I never wavered in my support for the Space Station Freedom. We kept the project fully funded and on schedule, and though there have been setbacks, I hope we won't abandon it now. We also defined the new frontier in space exploration when we committed this nation to going to Mars. We raised the bar a notch, and we did so with the pride and confidence that we could reach that goal.

Never before in our nation's history has America surveyed a frontier and then retreated. We have always been a people among whose basic urges is to seek out the distant horizon, to surpass it, to go to the next, and the next after that. We are the seekers, the explorers. We are the leaders. It is the stuff of our history—the stuff of our past. I believe it should also have a place in our future.

The Challenger Seven lived in vibrant pursuit of a dream. As long as we continue to pursue that dream, as long as we help it to touch the lives of our young people, as long as we help to ensure that America continues to rise to the challenge of the new frontier, then it can be said that we never truly lost those seven brave souls. They will continue to live on with us, and with the hopes and dreams of the nation.

April 11, 1995
Washington, D.C.

Additional Information

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