Op-ed: We love you SpaceX, and hope you reach Mars. But we need you to focus.

Enlarge / Screen grab of SpaceX static fire anomaly from YouTube video. (credit: USLaunchReport.com)

During eight years on Twitter and more than 21,500 tweets, I have used the F-word just one time, on the afternoon of April 8, 2016. Watching a Falcon 9 rocket fall out of the sky and somehow, miraculously, come to fiery stop on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean—the moment overcame me. That first sea-based landing may be the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life.

It is unprofessional to simultaneously report on, and be a huge fan of, subjects journalists cover. But there are very few space reporters who don’t marvel at the kinds of things SpaceX has done and is trying to do. I count myself among them. That doesn’t mean the company can do no wrong, nor should it be free from criticism. And having talked to myriad people in the space industry after Thursday’s accident, from new space zealots to big aerospace barons, one thing has become crystal clear. The booster that two NASA astronauts might climb on top of in two years—or less—has just suffered two failures in 15 months.

SpaceX is an amazing company, doing amazing things. But right now there’s really just one thing the company should focus on, and that’s meeting the needs of its biggest customer. That is not a satellite company. It is not Red Dragon. It is not the hordes of adoring fans eager to hear about the Mars Colonial Transporter. It is, rather, NASA, America’s stodgy space agency that has stood by the company for the better part of a decade.