WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 1986 (UPI) -- President Reagan postponed his State of the Union address Tuesday night and instead will speak to the American people about the tragedy of the explosion aboard the space shuttle Challenger, White House spokesman Larry Speakes announced Tuesday.
Speakes announced Reagan is dispatching Vice President George Bush and acting NASA Director Bill Graham to Cape Canaveral to ''begin an effort to find out the cause of this tragedy.''
Despite the explosion, Speakes said the shuttle program would go ahead.
''These people were dedicated to the exploration of space. We could do no more to honor them -- these courageous Americans -- than to go forward with the program,'' Speakes said of the seven people aboard the Challenger, including the first teacher chosen for space travel, Christa McAuliffe.
Speakes said Reagan has expressed great sorrow at the tragedy but not regret the space shuttle program.
Speakes said Reagan conferred with White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan, Senate GOP leader Robert Dole, R-Kan., and House Speaker Thomas O'Neill, and they agreed with his decision to delay for one week his State of the Union address.
As of mid-afternoon, the White House had not announced a time for the president's shuttle speech. The State of the Union address had been scheduled for 9 p.m. EST.
''The vice president will carry with him (to the Florida launch site) the president's personal concern about these courageous Americans,'' Speakes told reporters in a televised appearance in the White House press room.
''Like every American we hope (for good news about the fate of the shuttle crew) and until we find out otherwise, that hope will continue.'
Asked about Reagan's quick change of mind about putting off the State of the Union address, Speakes said, ''The president, like all Americans, watched this on television. He felt very keenly the emotion that must be felt by the families of those down there who had to watch this event in person and very keenly what the American people must be feeling.
''He consulted with the congressional leadership and the consensus opinion ... was that it was appropriate to postpone.''
Earlier, before he decided to postpone his State of the Union address, Reagan told television reporters, ''You can't stop governing the nation because of a tragedy of this kind. So, yes, one will continue.''
Reagan said, ''I'm confident that there will be no flight until they are absolutely as certain as a human being can be that it is safe.''
Space, he said, ''is the last frontier and the most important frontier ... I guess we've been so confident of it that it comes as such a tremendous shock when something of this kind happens.''
Reagan described how he learned of the explosion.
''We were all sitting in there, and I was preparing myself for your questions on the State of the Union address when the vice president and (national security adviser) John Poindexter came into the room. And all they could say at the time was that they had received a flash that the space shuttle had exploded.''
After going to a room adjoining the White House to watch television, ''There we saw the replaying and saw the thing actually happen. And it just was -- I say -- a very traumatic experience.''
Reagan said the only advice he would have for children who followed this mission in particular was to ''make it plain to them that life does go on and you don't back up and quit some worthwhile endeavor because of tragedy.''
''It's a horrible thing,'' the president said, ''and I just can't rid myself of the thought of the sacrifice and the families that have been watching this also -- the families of those people onboard and what they must be going through at this point.''
''These people were dedicated to the exploration of space,'' Speakes said of the seven people aboard the Challenger, including the first teacher chosen for space travel, Christa McAuliffe. ''We could do no more to honor them.''
Speakes said Reagan has expressed great sorrow at the tragedy but not regret the space shuttle program.
Speakes said Reagan conferred with White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan, Senate GOP leader Robert Dole, R-Kan., and they agreed with his decision to delay for one week his State of the Union address.
