The American space shuttle Challenger's explosion prompted a national grieving process typified by stages of shock, disbelief, acknowledgement, and finally recovery/adaptation. President Reagan's speech on the evening of the disaster assisted this process by integrating content and structure with the psychological needs of the audience. Reagan's speech adhered to classical eulogy structure in that he (1) praised the crew, ancestors, and the country by associating the astronauts with "pioneers" and with Sir Francis Drake; (2) lamented by identifying with the loss felt by the crew's families; and (3) consoled by affirming the continuation of the crew's spirit and bravery in the future space program, and in their immortality with God. He thereby performed the traditional eulogistic functions of acknowledging death, transforming the relationship with the dead from present to past tense, easing the mourners' terror of their own mortality with assurance that the deceased live on, and reknitting the community. The speech also contained elements of deliberative oratory by asserting the continuation of the space program, praising national values, and criticizing Soviet secrecy in similar disasters, creating a hybrid genre in which the president answered the complexity of the grieving process and concentrated on the most prominent stages of loss, recovery and unification. Similar aspects of official eulogy surrounded President Kennedy's assassination, but not the Vietnam-era Apollo disaster, probably because the war precluded any closure of the grief process. (JG)