"As we work our way through the grief and mourning that rolled across America when the full extent of the Columbia tragedy was realized, we owe it to the lost astronauts and their families and to future generations, and the unique place of this nation, to renew our collective appreciation of and commitment to what took them into space in the first place.

It was the pursuit of knowledge to know more about the great unknown in our lives, about what lies out there, beyond the moon and the space station. As Americans are reminded everyday we have political, economic, and military power unparalleled in the history of mankind, and if we have the will, we have the power to begin to know the unknown, and to enrich all of our earthly neighbors with what we have learned. It can be a noble cause at difficult time."

Tom Brokaw, NBC Dateline
Sunday, February 2, 2003