Telephone Remarks on the Dedication of the Bicentennial Exposition on Science and Technology at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Dr. Fletcher, Congressman Teague, Congressman Frey, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

I'm extremely happy to have this chance to send my greetings and very best wishes on the dedication of the Science and Technology Exposition. I am honored to congratulate all who took part in creating this very important Bicentennial program. This massive, combined effort, planned and carried out by NASA, 16 other Federal agencies, and a number of corporations and institutions of higher learning, represents the same spirit of cooperation and mutual support that enabled Americans to venture from Cape Canaveral to the Moon and back.

The Kennedy Space Center is the fitting location for this exposition. In just 20 years it has become historic ground in the United States as well as in the world.

The brave astronauts of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs and their dedicated support teams represent the finest qualities in American science and technology. The Space Center and the fabulous story behind it has become a part of America's national heritage. More than just a story of technical expertise, it is a superb story of courage, perseverance and strength, of determination and of faith. It's another chapter in America's history of reaching out to the unknown that began when the first colonists set sail across an unfriendly sea to an unexplored continent.

America's future is itself unchartered territory, but I am confident we will face that challenge with the same courage and imagination that have marked all of our voyages into the unknown.

This fine exposition will tell Americans of our unique contributions to the progress of mankind. It unveils some of the scientific wonders to come, developments which will not only range across the solar system but which will change everyday life here on Earth. It will show Americans that our horizons are still unlimited, and so is our capacity to reach for them into our third century.

I congratulate all who have been a part from the very beginning of the development of this outstanding exposition, and I wish everybody connected with it the very best. And I hope and trust that thousands and thousands and thousands of Americans and those from other parts of the world will come and see for themselves what we have done and what we will do in the future.

Thank you, Dr. Fletcher, and the very best to all.