

Americans were never excited about space exploration.  - mchanson
http://si.academia.edu/RogerLaunius/Papers/93299/_Public_Opinion_Polls_and_Perceptions_of_US_Human_Spaceflight

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prosa
This is an interesting study, but I found the HN title to be misleading. Here
are the bullets from the concluding paragraph:

* The American public has long held generally positive attitudes toward the space program, but is not very familiar with its details.

* Over the history of the space age, an average of more than 60 percent of those polled rated the job done by NASA as either ‘‘excellent’’ or ‘‘good.’’

* Most Americans have shown support for space exploration and view it as important over the years, but also believe that federal money could be better spent on other programs.

* Most are also in favor of NASA as an organization, but are relatively unfamiliar with the majority of its activities and objectives.

* These polls also suggest historically close relationships between public perceptions of NASA and spaceflight depictions in popular culture, especially film. These images from popular culture, coupledwith real-world accomplishments in spaceflight, work together to create powerful visions affecting the public consciousness.

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anigbrowl
What a superb paper! thanks for posting this, I learned a good deal from it. I
was _astonished_ by figure 15, showing that although NASA,s budget has
historically been about 1% of the total federal budget, the general public
simply has _no idea_ , with 15%+ of the public (in the 1990s) thinking that
NASA consumes 50% or more of total federal spending. WTF.

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WiseWeasel
It's a shame the data only seems to be available up to 1997 for the study. For
those curious how recent private space initiatives have impacted these
numbers, here are a couple more recent data points I could find:

[http://www.gallup.com/poll/121736/majority-americans-say-
spa...](http://www.gallup.com/poll/121736/majority-americans-say-space-
program-costs-justified.aspx)

[http://www.people-press.org/2011/07/05/majority-sees-u-s-
lea...](http://www.people-press.org/2011/07/05/majority-sees-u-s-leadership-
in-space-as-essential/)

[http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/gen...](http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/general_lifestyle/july_2011/50_say_space_shuttle_program_worth_what_it_cost_taxpayers)

