What Americans Think of Space

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA’s Crew-5 Dragon spacecraft

In 2023, the Pew Research Center surveyed over 10,000 American adults to understand Americans’ views of space issues. 

Here are a few of Pew’s findings : 

• 69% of Americans say it is essential for the U.S. to be a leader in space exploration.  
• 55% of Americans think people will routinely travel to space as tourists in the next 50 years.
  • Regarding whether or not they would travel to space, 35% say they would be interested in orbiting Earth in a spacecraft and 65% would not be interested.
• 47% of Americans report that they have done at least one of these four space-related activities in the last year:
  • Watched a space launch
  • Looked at an image from a space telescope
  • Visited a planetarium or space museum
  • Seen an astronomical event such as an eclipse or meteor shower

Pew also asked respondents how they would rate priorities for NASA’s space efforts. The survey listed the nine priorities in the image below for respondents to rank. I think it is interesting that in 2018 63% said that monitoring key parts of the Earth’s climate system should be a top priority for NASA but in 2023 the number dropped to 50%.

Pew Research Center Findings

Tags: astro2110, blog4, space