As the portion of the population who remembers the hysteria of the space race is beginning to decline, is there a possibility for a revival of American enthusiasm for space travel? American support for outer space exploration is a multifaceted issue which draws its conclusions from how well a number of spheres of the government, including international relations, and economic prosperity, are doing.
At the height of the space race, American innovation was largely fueled by a national competitiveness with the U.S.S.R. In December 1959, Gallup found only 35% of Americans believed that the United States would be the first country to send a man to the moon, while 44% believed the Soviet Union would reach this feat first. This fear of Soviet advancement and superiority reflected larger Cold War tensions, as, from the same poll, only 34% of Americans believed that the U.S. was ahead of Russia in the field of long-range missiles and rockets.
American support for space travel boomed, with Cold War tensions and economic prosperity of the post war decades being cited as the major reasons, as, in a 1965 Washington Post/Harris Poll, only 38% of Americans noted that they would support the U.S. space program if the Russians were also not going into space.
American pessimistic fear of Russian superiority prompted mass federal spending towards space advancement, with $30 billion being allotted by the U.S. government to the space race between 1957 and 1969. This allocation was well received, with 68% of Americans in 1969 General Electric survey approving of America’s attempt to send a man into space.
The moon landing was a turning point for not only global technological advancement, but also American support. With the largest goal of the space race achieved, public support began to take a downturn throughout the latter half of the 20th century. A 1998 Gallup/CNN/USA Today Poll found only 21% of Americans believed that NASA funding should be increased.
While people were no longer sharing the same levels of enthusiasm for publicly funded space travel, interest in private space travel began to grow. With national competitiveness between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. no longer a looming factor and economic interests largely lying elsewhere, people began to see space travel as a leisure possibility rather than a sign of national dominance.
In a 1999 CBS News Poll, only 21% of Americans expressed their willingness to take a “vacation cruise” to outer space. By May 2021, a Quinnipiac Poll showed this number at 34%.
Now, private space travel is not some far off dystopian idea but a growing reality, as companies such as billionaire owned companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic have already launched commercial tourism flights into space. In a 2023 Ipsos/Pew Poll, 75% of Americans noted that they had heard of these companies, up from 63% in 2018. In terms of approval, as of June 2023, only 12% of Americans said that these companies were doing a “mostly bad job,” with 47% saying that they are doing a “mostly good job”.
While privatized space travel is still not widely available to the everyday American, its popularity and plausibility has grown tremendously. With the newfound relationships between the billionaire owners of these companies, such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, and the federal government, we will see how support for privatized space travel might change during President Trump’s second term.
For more information on how Americans feel about the growing reality of private space travel, check out our recent episode of Poll Hub on this topic: https://poll-hub.simplecast.com/episodes/the-new-space-race-ev-stall-out
This post was written by Marist Poll Media Team member Neel Viswanathan.