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Collette Sullivan

Mrs. Kovar

English 1101

14 March 2019

“On the Challenger Disaster” Rhetorical Analysis

On January 28, 1986, President Ronald Reagan gave a speech, “On the Challenger

Disaster,” from his Oval Office to talk to the nation about the Challenger disaster. Earlier that

morning at Florida’s space station, the Space Shuttle Challenger’s launch failed and killed seven

people including what would have been the first school teacher to go to space. Ronald Reagan

wanted to provide comfort to his audience, the students that had been watching, and help the

people emotionally affected. In Ronald Reagan’s speech, Reagan used a variety of appeals to

comfort people affected, show his grief, and explain that the space program would continue

despite this tragedy.

Reagan used Pathos as a way for him to reach out towards his audience in a time of

mourning. As Reagan says in his speech, there had never before been a disaster so significant to

young people. Therefore, Reagan had to convince young people that this disaster should not

frighten them, but that it should inspire them to want to follow in their teacher’s footsteps of

dreaming big. With this thought, Reagan addresses the schoolchildren of America, “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.” This appeals to emotion on account of using

children as the primary audience, so adults feel empathy for the children considering most people

do not want to see children upset (Reagan). Creating in the minds of viewers the image of
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children watching a teacher die while trying to achieve her goal appeals to Pathos because it

evokes adults emotions.

Reagan uses Ethos to make listeners believe his empathy and pain towards the Challenger

tragedy. Reagan does so by repeatedly saying the words we, us, our, and together to show that

the nation and himself had felt the same emotions. Secondly, Reagan says “I want to add that I

wish I could talk to every man and woman who works for NASA or who worked on this mission

and tell them: ‘Your dedication and professionalism have moved and impressed us for decades.

And we know of your anguish. We share it,’” Reagan says this to make his listeners feel comfort

in knowing he is a person who cares about other families. Reagan is proving to his audience that

he is a compassionate and caring person. Reagan ensures the nation as one by using Ethos to

implement his credibility.

Finally, Reagan used Logos to ensure the nation that the space program would continue

forward despite this tragedy. Reagan describes how sometimes people forget that space is

unexplainable because we have grown so accustomed to the idea of traveling there. As Reagan

says, “We’ve grown used to wonders in this century. It’s hard to dazzle us. But for twenty-five

years the United States space program has been doing just that. We’ve grown used to the idea of

space, and perhaps we forgot that we’ve only just begun,” this helped make Reagan’s point that

the space program still has so much to learn and explore (Reagan). Continuing this thought, he

implies to the audience that this accident will help NASA in the future to prevent other accidents

caused by the same malfunctions. Reagan tells his audience that the space program will continue

by saying “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.”
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(Reagan). By making these statements, Reagan made his audience use their logic and reasoning,

Pathos, in knowing that this tragedy would not end space travel forever.

During this national tragedy, Reagan reached out to the nation through speech. He

improved the dynamics of his speech by implementing pathos, ethos, and logos. He targeted his

audience towards children, which in result, touched the hearts of many americans and also

opened their eyes to a view they probably could not imagine, a child’s point of view. His main

purpose for speaking was to comfort them, show his grief, and ensure the belief that the program

will continue.
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Work Cited

Reagan, Ronald. “On the Challenger Disaster.” The History Place, 2019,

http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/previous.htm. Accessed 19 Mar. 2019.