Posted on 06/11/2004 9:04:34 PM PDT by Denver Ditdat
Expedition 9 crew honors President Reagan from space (Jun 11, 2004)
The International Space Station Expedition 9 crew paid tribute to former President Ronald Reagan June 10. Astronaut Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, and cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, rang the ISS ship's bell 40 times to commemorate the nation's 40th chief executive. Reagan died June 5 at the age of 93 of complications resulting from Alzheimer's disease.
"We, the crew of the International Space Station, join millions of others in mourning the passing of President Reagan, who worked tirelessly to bring the world closer together," said Padalka, the Expedition 9 crew commander. Fincke noted that it was Reagan who had proposed building the space station. "President Reagan realized that freedom would ring in a new era of international cooperation," he said, "and with his vision guiding us, the United States again began to work with our former Cold War rivals, the Russians." Within a decade, Fincke said, the US shuttle Atlantis had docked to the Russian Mir space station, and President Reagan's space station Freedom became the International Space Station. Fincke said he and Padalka felt privileged to be working aboard the ISS "for the benefit of all humankind." He recalled that during Reagan's White House tenure, the president had spoken with astronauts in space, greeted the crew of Columbia after its fourth voyage and led the nation in mourning the loss of the Challenger crew. "We all mourn his passing as freedom-loving people around the world," Fincke concluded. "God bless him, and God bless America!"
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