SpaceX explosion shows NASA needed: Your Say

SpaceX is leading an investigation into what caused its Falcon 9 rocket, carrying supplies for the International Space Station, to explode Sunday. Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

This is what happens when you try to privatize something that is too big and complex for private industry. NASA should be doing this.

— Brian Koziarski

It's time to shut down the International Space Station and bring home everyone there. Most of the useful experiments were done long ago. How about NASA being put to work solving problems here on Earth, such as issues involving energy and transportation.

— Paul Lux

Exploration is hard, and sometimes the technology can go spectacularly — and disastrously — awry. It has been this way before, from the Titanic to the space shuttle Challenger.

We learn from our mistakes, and then we promptly forget them, choosing instead to believe in a myth of some magical success.

— Dan Porath

Roll with the punches, and don't worry about mistakes and wrong turns. Only those who never try have the luxury of making no mistakes.

— George Kafantaris

NASA needs to bring back the space shuttle program. It's obvious that private companies can't get things right.

— Jon Fye III

NASA has been forced to outsource resupplying missions to what now looks like an inept SpaceX organization.

This program is a disaster and is destroying our leadership role in space.

— Larry Bradford