Challenger Part 2 - A Swan Song

We've grown used to wonders in this century

It's hard to dazzle us

We've grown used to the idea of space

And perhaps we forget that we've only just began

We're still pioneers

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

Nothing ends here

On this day 390 years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake

Died aboard the ship off the coast of Panama

In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans

And an historian later said, "He lived by the sea, died on it

And was buried in it"

Well, today we can say of the Challenger crew

Their dedication was, like Drake's, complete

We will never forget them

Nor the last time we saw them

As they prepared for their journey

And waved goodbye

And slipped the surly bonds of earth

To touch the face of god

Thank you