Andy Pasztor

Andy Pasztor is a journalist with the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of the 1995 book "When the Pentagon was for Sale: Inside America's Biggest Defense Scandal."

Contents

Journalism controversies

Burt Rutan

On February 24, 2010, Andy Pasztor wrote an article titled "Space Pioneer Burt Rutan Blasts New NASA Plan," claiming that Burt Rutan had written a letter to Congress sharply criticizing President Obama's plans to turn over portions of its human spaceflight program to commercial providers.[1] A couple days later Burt Rutan released a statement saying that "the WSJ chose to cherry-pick and misquote my comments to Cong Wolf." [2]

SpaceX

Immediately following SpaceX's inaugural launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, Andy Pasztor wrote in a WSJ article titled "SpaceX Illustrates Privatization Risk" on June 7, 2010 alleging that SpaceX claimed it would require $1 billion to build a launch escape system for its rocket, and that the company would likely require future assistance from US taxpayers.[3] When asked about this, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded saying:

"Andy Pasztor’s article in the Journal was, I’m sorry to say, rife with errors. He was off by a factor of ten on what it would cost SpaceX to develop a launch escape system. Also, under no circumstances would SpaceX be seeking a financing round from the taxpayers. That doesn’t make any sense." [4]

References

  1. ^ Pasztor, Andy. Space Pioneer Burt Rutan Blasts New NASA Plan", The Wall Street Journal, 24 February 2010
  2. ^ Rutan, Burt. Burt Rutan Issues Clarification on Wall Street Journal Remarks, SpaceRef.com, 26 February 2010
  3. ^ Pasztor, Andy. SpaceX Illustrates Privatization Risk, 7 June 2010
  4. ^ Loizos, Connie. Elon Musk Weighs in On WSJ Piece, and Future of SpaceX, 8 June 2010