5 years ago 06/09/2019 - 06/30/2019

Sample Size 1018

Method

Margin of Error +/- 4%

Quick Facts
63% believe NASA is doing an either "Excellent" or "Good" job
64% believe the benefits of the space program justify the costs
2/3 of Americans correctly volunteer Neil Armstrong as the 1st man on the Moon
Key Takeaways
A strong majority of Americans are supportive of NASA and want to see its budget either increased or stable
Support for NASA is rising over time
Neil Armstrong is more well known now than 20 years ago
Detailed Breakdown
Overall, this Gallup data shows Americans being supportive of maintaining or increasing NASAs budget with a sizable minority opposed, which largely conforms to our previous analysis. This data also offers some historical perspective absent in the earlier analysis.

64% believe the space program has brought enough benefits to the country to justify the costs, while only 34% say it has not. This is up from 58%/38% in 2009, and 55%/40% in 1990. 27% say NASAs budget should be increased, 50% say it should stay the same, while only 16% say it should be reduced—and an even smaller 6% say it should be cut altogether. This combined 77% matches or exceeds the historical highs of 75% (2004) and 76% (1986). It is also substantially higher than the 60% recorded in 2010.

These numbers are in line with what our earlier analysis revealed. Roughly 20-25% of people are in favor of increasing NASA’s budget, roughly 20-25% of people are opposed, and the remaining 50-60% are generally supportive (but can be vulnerable to question wording and context). The trend-line data is revealing, demonstrating a rise in support over time to near historic highs.    

Gallup asked if Americans thought NASA was doing an excellent, good, fair, or poor job. A combined 63% responded either excellent or good, the highest level recorded since 1999 (76%). This represented a rise from 56% in 2018 and 50% in 2010. 

Overall this number is a bit more tepid than our earlier analysis found, which had support levels in the 70-80% range. The trend-line does show support rising fairly rapidly over the last few years, so this is not a total outlier.

⅔ of Americans correctly volunteered Neil Armstrong as the 1st man to walk on the Moon. This is an increase from only 50%(!) in 1990. Seeing as nothing changed about the Moon landings in the intervening 29 years, and one would in fact expect the reverse trend to occur, this author has zero explanation as to what is going on here.

25% answered "don’t know" or volunteered someone completely random, which speaks to the persistent 25% or so of respondents who demonstrate very little interest or knowledge of space and are almost uniformly unhappy with NASA and don’t support it. Further research into this group would be highly instructive.