Proclamation 5932 -- National Challenger Center Day, 1989
January 12, 1989
By
the President of the United States of
America
A
Proclamation
Marble
statuary and granite monuments, imposing as they may be, can never speak with
the eloquence reserved only for a living memorial. The Challenger Center is a living tribute to
the brave and courageous crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger who made the
supreme sacrifice 3 years ago. The mission and work of this crew will continue
with their same sense of dedication and vision at the Challenger Center.
The
Center has already made significant strides in establishing a Washington headquarters as well as
regional mission sites and affiliated museums across our country. At these
facilities children and their teachers will carry on the mission of the
Challenger crew to push out ever further the frontiers of our knowledge and to
expand the very realm of mankind's dreams and aspirations. It is fitting to
recall the words of the poet Mary Lee Hill as she exhorts us to turn again to
life:
If
I should die and leave you here a while,
Be
not like others, sore undone, who keep
Long vigil by the silent dust and weep.
For
my sake turn again to life and smile;
Complete
these dear unfinished tasks of mine,
And
I, perchance, may therein comfort you.
To
recognize the importance of the Challenger Center and its charter to expand
educational opportunities in science and to thereby carry on the mission of the
Challenger astronauts and the space program, the Congress, by Public Law 100 -
684, has designated January 28, 1989, as ``National Challenger Center Day'' and
authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of
this day.
Now,
Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of
America, do hereby proclaim January
28, 1989,
as National Challenger Center Day. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day by
remembering the Challenger astronauts who died while serving their country and
by reflecting upon the important role the Challenger Center will play in honoring
their accomplishments and in furthering their goal of strengthening space and
science education.
In
Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twelfth day of January, in
the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of
America the two hundred and
thirteenth.
Ronald
Reagan
[Filed with the Office
of the Federal Register, 11:18 a.m., January 13, 1989]