Aerospace engineering professors and students gathered in the spacecraft systems and operations lab in Howe Hall Tuesday to view the NASA memorial service broadcast from the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The memorial service paid tribute to the seven astronauts killed aboard the space shuttle Columbia.

A crowd of about 20 students and faculty viewed the tribute on a big-screen television, which included hymns, prayers, bell-ringing and a speech from President Bush.

In his speech, Bush spoke about each of the crew members aboard the space shuttle and declared, “America’s space program will go on.”

“Each of these astronauts had the daring and the discipline required of their calling. Each of them knew great endeavors are inseparable from great risk, and each of them accepted those risks willingly, even joyfully, in the cause of discovery,” he said. “For these seven, it was a dream fulfilled.”

Bill Byrd, ISU program director for aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics, worked at the Johnson Space Center when the space shuttle Challenger exploded upon liftoff in 1986. He is now the director of the NASA spacecraft program in Iowa.

“It’s different because I didn’t know the people on board [the Columbia], Byrd said. “I felt the program was very tasteful and a lot like the Challenger’s [memorial service].”

In Houston, Sean O’Keefe, NASA’s administrator, said the space program’s “grief is overwhelming” and vowed that the government would find out what caused Columbia’s loss and to correct the problems for the future.

Carmen Fuchs, office manager for the Iowa Space Grant Consortium, said she believed the memorial service was very well-presented.

“I felt it was very well done; very reverent,” Fuchs said. “[Here at Iowa State], we feel like we are an extended part of the NASA program.”

Bryce Martin, senior in aerospace engineering, said he felt the tribute was “very powerful.

“I thought the program was done very well,” Martin said. “They gave a lot [of information] about each individual person.”

Columbia exploded Saturday over north-central Texas, just 16 minutes before it was expected to land at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Tuesday’s memorial evoked memories of the last space shuttle tragedy. At the memorial for the Challenger, President Ronald Reagan gave what some people believe to be his most eloquent speech.

“Sometimes, when we reach for the stars, we fall short,” he said on Jan. 31, 1986, in Houston. “But we must pick ourselves up again and press on despite the pain.”

— The Associated Press contributed to this story.