The Numbers
A Run at the Latest Data from ABC's Poobah of Polling, Gary Langer
Gary Langer is director of polling at ABC News, where he's covered the beat of public opinion for nearly 20 years - conducting and analyzing ABC News polls, evaluating data from other sources and setting the news division's standards for poll reporting. Langer has won two Emmy awards for ABC's reporting of public opinion polls in Iraq, and The Numbers blog was honored this year as winner of the 2008 Iowa Gallup Award for Excellent Journalism Using Polls.
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Thumbs Up for Apollo 11; Current Efforts, Less So
July 19, 2009 6:06 PM
Americans are as supportive as ever of the moon landing 40 years ago tomorrow – but far less persuaded of the value of today’s space program overall.
Seventy percent in this ABC News/Washington Post poll say the lunar landing was worth it. That’s about the same as at the 30th anniversary in 1999, and up sharply from 1979, when – perhaps still smarting from the cost – just 47 percent called it worthwhile.
In another measure, though, there’s been a decline in the number who say the continuing space program has brought enough benefits to justify its costs – just 51 percent now, the fewest since 1994 and down from its high, 65 percent, in 2003.
Moon landing worth the effort?
Yes No
Now 70% 27%
1999* 71 24
1979* 47 49
*CBS
Space program justify its costs?
Yes No
Now 51% 43%
2003 65 29
1999* 55 40
1979** 41 53
*Gallup, **NBC/AP
The decline has occurred, to varying degrees, across the board; the straitened economic times might be one factor in the cost-benefit analysis. The program’s somewhat less popular among women (47 percent say it’s justified its cost) than men (55 percent), and more popular with better-educated and higher-income adults.
The moon landing, for its part, is least likely to be seen as worthwhile by people who were adults at the time. Among those 58 and over – at least 18 at the time of Apollo 11 – 55 percent now say it was worth the effort. By contrast, among adults under 40 – not yet born when the Eagle touched down – far more, 79 percent, call it a worthwhile effort.
(For more on the views of the space program, see my post last week.)
Click here for a PDF with the full questionnaire.
July 19, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (2)
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JPL's mission is much more acceptable than JSC's. Too much extra costs with keeping humans alive. JSC's mission should be scaled back.
Posted by: Huh | Jul 19, 2009 9:33:57 PM
Yeah, And maybe Colombus, Magellan, Marco Polo, etc, maybe they all should have just stayed home and not take the risks, both physical and financial to explore.
Better to stay home and spend trillions more on problems that we have done nothing but throw money at for decades with little if any real results!
The arguement about not spending money on manned space exploration because we having starving people here, or homeless people here, or now with healthcare is foolish. It always was!
We have thrown huge buckets of money at all these issues that people whine about and if we took every single penny EVER spent on space exploration and tossed it at these "social issues", the outcome would have been no different.
On the other hand, the continuing challenges that manned space flight presents pushes our technological envelope and results in advances that benefit all of us.
Since 2001 NASA's budget has not even been more than 0.74% of the Total Federal Budget. Since the end of the Apollo era (Apollo/Soyuz-1975), the NASA Budget has not once risen over 1.0% of the Fed Budget.
Posted by: Mike_C | Jul 20, 2009 10:22:55 AM
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