Earlier this month I noted a bit of controversy among SpaceX, Neil Armstrong and 60 Minutes.

Specifically, during a 60 Minutes segment, host Scott Pelley asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk, “There are American heroes who don’t like this idea. Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan have both testified against commercial spaceflight and the way that you’re developing it, and I wonder what you think of that?”

After the segment I received a letter from spaceflight pioneer Chris Kraft saying the 60 Minutes piece distorted the views of Armstrong, Cernan and himself. I published their letter as part of the blog entry.

On Thursday evening I received a letter from Pelley, which included the following:

“We should have made it explicit in our story that, while Armstrong was “not confident” that the newcomers could achieve safety and cost goals in the near term, he did want to “encourage” them. We also should have spelled out more clearly that his concerns were directed toward the “newcomers” in general and not SpaceX in particular.”

Here’s the entire letter from Pelley.

Letter to Mr Eric Berger





In the age of digital journalism it’s seemingly increasingly rare for journalists and news organizations to step forward with corrections and clarifications, so Pelley has my respect for clarifying this story.