I've always had great faith in and respect for our space program, and what happened today does nothing to diminish it. We don't hide our space program. We don't keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That's the way freedom is, and we wouldn't change it for a minute. We'll continue our quest in space. There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue. I want to add that I wish I could talk to every man and woman who works for NASA or who worked on this mission and tell them: “Your dedication and professionalism have moved and impressed us for decades. And we know of your anguish. We share it.”

In this excerpt, President Reagan uses persuasive speech to

a. comfort the families of the lost astronauts.
b. argue that NASA should be improved.
c. renew hope in America’s space program.
d. encourage students to study science.

A persuasive speech is inclined to make the readers believe in the ideas and thoughts presented by the speaker. This type of speech is delivered with the aim to convince, inform, or motivate the readers to accept the specific point of view suggested by the author. President Reagan used this persuasive speech to renew hope America's space program after the failure of a mission. He employs pathos(emotional plea) to motivate the people working with NASA to not lose hope and gain strength to achieve the bigger goals in the future as they had done in the past. Thus, the correct answer is option C.