According to Songfacts, Young has declared in an Q&A for AOL Music:

It was a fun thing to do as a concept. I knew I wanted a little bit of an intermission, kind of a little break in the middle of the record. We used to play that little clip of Reagan addressing the country when the Challenger disaster happened in ‘86 live on tour then play some kind of ethereal, ambient music behind it. I was actually born in that year, and my mom used to talk about being pregnant and watching that thing on TV and what a huge blow it was to everybody. So growing up that was a part of who I was, indirectly. On the record, I wanted to pay respect to that – just imagine what it would be like going into the next song, 'Galaxies,’ what it would be like if I were one of those guys on the Challenger. Then it exploded, and I was taken from this life into eternity. So it was fun to imagine beyond the confines of what actually happened and how disastrous that was."