( CNN ) -- Yes , trying to lift 5,000 pounds of cargo to orbit is rocket science -- and it 's very hard . Early Tuesday evening , an Antares rocket , built by Orbital Sciences Corp. , and its Cygnus cargo ship exploded almost immediately after launch . Yet as disappointing as this incident is , it should not be treated as a sign that NASA 's partnerships with the private sector are flawed . This was a technical error , and it should be treated as one . After all , this was only the fifth launch of an Antares rocket , and there is a higher risk of explosion with relatively new rockets than there is with those that have been used for many years , where the bugs have been worked out earlier , often through failures . Antares , as one of several new rockets being commercially developed , signals a new , important way of doing business in space that must be given the chance to mature . Since the 1950s , rocketry has been the purview of the federal government . Only through what may eventually be seen as fortuitous poor planning -- building an International Space Station and then canceling the shuttle transportation program originally intended as the taxi to said station -- has the private sector really stepped in , albeit with an anchor tenant . `` Fix lift , '' meaning bringing down cost-per-pound to orbit and being able to launch on demand ( or at least close to it ) has been the No . 1 recommendation in the spate of space studies that have littered Washington since the 1980s . Working with the private sector is nothing new . Indeed , development of a product , sector or even geographic region -- which has been most successful when the government invests seed money and then turns development over to the private sector -- has been going on for decades . Back in 1925 , the Air Mail Act , under which companies were paid for transporting the mail , provided the private sector an incentive to develop commercial airplanes . In addition , government forts and soldiers provided protection so the railways could be built and the West developed . Yet until recently , space has been anomalous in its development , remaining tied to government funding , bureaucracy and politics , and consequently stifling incentive and entrepreneurship . That has been changing . Orbital Sciences is one of two companies hired to take cargo to the ISS after the shuttle fleet was retired . The other is Space Exploration Technologies , or SpaceX . Both companies developed rockets to carry out that task . Tuesday 's ill-fated flight was to be Orbital 's third in a series of eight flights under a $ 1.9 billion contract with NASA . The first two were successful . SpaceX will fly its next contracted flight in December . Hiring private companies to provide launch services is a new way of doing business for NASA , one that should be encouraged and continued . It is the way of the future in space given that NASA budget 's has not kept up with external and self-imposed programmatic expectations since the Apollo years . If low Earth orbit launches can be taken care of by the private sector , government funding to NASA can be used in pursuit of more ambitious goals , including human spaceflight . Meanwhile , low Earth orbit launches by private companies will become routine , although we 're not there yet . After the Antares explosion , Orbital Sciences stock reportedly fell about 15 % in after- hours trading . But while investor concern is understandable to a degree , it also reflects the public 's view -- and so investors ' view -- of space travel as routine . The reliability figures for old standby rockets makes it seem that way , but new products have bugs to be worked out . Problems are expected and ( barely ) tolerated in day-to-day technology , but apparently not in rockets . Luckily , there were no injuries from exploding rocket debris , though there was damage on the ground that will need repairing . And the loss of the Antares cargo posed no danger to the crew of the International Space Station where it was headed . There was nothing critical on board , and an unmanned Russian Progress spacecraft successfully launched shortly after the Antares failure , carrying almost three tons of food , fuel and crew supplies . Teams at NASA and Orbital Sciences are already busily at work determining the cause of the failure . In the meantime , a little show of support for American entrepreneurship seems in order . Because when they find the cause of the failure , they will fix it and move forward .
Antares rocket explosion a technical error , writes Joan Johnson-Freese . Risk of explosion is higher with relatively new rockets like these , she says . Comment: