A majority of Americans (69%) say it’s essential for the U.S. to continue to be a world leader in space. As private companies become a bigger part of the industry, the public gives them more positive than negative ratings for their contributions to space exploration and spacecraft development. Still, Americans continue to say NASA has a critical role to play going forward.
Americans express overwhelmingly favorable opinions of federal agencies like the Postal Service, the National Park Service, NASA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) despite historically low levels of public trust in the federal government.
Most Americans are confident that private space companies will make meaningful contributions in developing safe and reliable spacecraft or conducting research to expand space knowledge.
About four-in-ten Americans (42%) say they would definitely or probably be interested in orbiting the Earth in a spacecraft in the future, while roughly six-in-ten (58%) say they would not be interested.