Public Opinion About Space Exploration - America Rates Nasa's Performance

In September 2003 the Gallup Organization conducted a survey in which 1,025 adults were asked to rate the performance of some prominent government agencies. The participants considered eight agencies and ranked their performance as "excellent," "good," "only fair," or "poor." The results are shown in Figure 9.11. Exactly half of the respondents believe that NASA's performance is "excellent" or "good." This rating placed NASA fourth overall out of the eight agencies considered.

Since 1990 Gallup has asked poll participants to rate NASA's performance as a federal agency. A comparison of these ratings is given in Figure 9.12. The graph shows the percentage of respondents in each poll that rated NASA as performing at an "excellent" or "good" level. The highest rating of 76 percent was recorded in a poll conducted November 22–24, 1998. This was only two weeks after John Glenn's flight aboard the space shuttle Discovery. The next three polls saw NASA's rating slip dramatically, reaching 50 percent in September 2003.

FIGURE 9.12
Public opinion poll on the performance of NASA, 1990–2003

Comparison of Figure 9.12 and Figure 9.5 reveals that the low performance rating of September 1993 coincides with a peak in the number of people wanting to decrease NASA's budget that year. It was one of several tough years for the nation's space program.

NASA's most horrific failures occurred in 1986 and 2003, when space shuttles were lost in accidents. Seven astronauts died each time. Days after each disaster Gallup assessed the public's confidence in NASA's ability to avoid similar accidents in the future. Following the 1986 loss of the space shuttle Challenger, 79 percent of respondents expressed confidence that another shuttle loss could be avoided. When the Columbia shuttle was destroyed during reentry in 2003 this confidence proved to be misplaced. Interestingly enough, the public's confidence level actually increased to 82 percent after the second accident. The numbers suggest that Americans remain optimistic about NASA's competency.

In August 2003 Gallup surveyed 1,003 adults regarding their expectations about the risks associated with the space shuttle program. As shown in Figure 9.13 most respondents (43 percent) felt that a fatal crash every 100 missions was an "acceptable price to pay" to advance America's space exploration goals. In reality NASA's shuttle program has experienced two crashes during 113 missions. This is an average of one fatal crash every 56.5 missions.

Only 17 percent of those asked expressed the belief that a successful space shuttle program experience no fatal FIGURE 9.13
Public opinion poll on how many fatal space shuttle crashes would be acceptable, 2003 crashes at all. The vast majority (75 percent) appear to accept the loss of human lives as a regrettable, but expected, price to pay to advance the nation's space program.

This viewpoint also appeared in another Gallup poll conducted the day after the Columbia disaster. The vast majority of those asked (94 percent) said they were upset about the accident. However, 71 percent of the poll participants said that a second fatal shuttle accident was not unexpected. Only 28 percent of the respondents were surprised that another shuttle had been lost during their lifetime.