Pluto flyby inspires awe, pride: Your Say.

I would like to congratulate all those at NASA, all of its partners and all those individuals who worked on the mission to Pluto and the New Horizons spacecraft (“Pluto: Icy, weird, far away — finally gets a close encounter with Earth”). To have endured 10 years and 3 billion miles successfully is beyond words. It just proves that men and women can do amazing things that will benefit all of us for years to come.

Benjamin Carroccio; Westlake, Ohio

Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

The flyby of Pluto, along with the Mars rovers, are just two of the many amazing accomplishments of NASA. Still, it is a shame that we are currently unable to get our astronauts into space on our own.

— Johnny Rose

Right now, we don’t have a major need for sending astronauts into space. When time does come for more people in space, the private sector should be able to do the job.

— Dave Cawdell

It makes no sense to keep putting money into programs just to discover more about things we’re never going to step foot on. There are way more important things right here that our money could be used for.

— Cathy Raymo

Understanding what Pluto is, where it came from and how it came to be sheds light on our own questions of existence. By understanding the farthest reaches of our solar system, we can better understand our own planet, and ourselves. That is amazing, and well worth it.