Christa McAuliffes Funeral

The Poem Read at Christa McAuliffes Funeral is High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Christa was a teacher chosen by NASA for the Teacher in Space Project as part of the the Challenger space mission. The mission failed and she died on January 28, 1986, aged 37, off Cape Canaveral, Florida
Ronald Reagan quoted from High Flight in his speech that followed the Challenger disaster

High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while the silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr, RCAF (1922-1941)A Canadian fighter pilot killed in Action in World War 2

Christa McAuliffes Funeral