This guy went up, went supersonic,
ripped the fin can off.
The art sale in the sky.
A burning metal hunk coming back.
These things dropped
down from above all through the weekend
of rocket launch after rocket launch.
It's a cadence you can't quite imagine.
I try to capture the mishaps;
it's a challenge in photography
when these things take place
in a fraction of a second.
Why do it? For things like this:
Gene from Alabama drives out there
with this rocket he's built
with X-ray sensors, video cameras,
festooned with electronics.
He succeeds getting to 100,000 feet,
leaving the atmosphere,
seeing a thin blue line of space.
It is this breathtaking image --
success, of course -- that motivates us
and motivates kids to follow
and understand rocket science,
understand the importance
of physics and math
and, in many ways,
to have that awe at exploration
of the frontiers of the unknown.
Thank you.
(Applause)