Many Americans are optimistic about the future of space travel, but they don’t necessarily want to pay for it.
It’s been that way for some time, actually. A Harris survey taken in 1970 – less than a year after the first moon landing – showed that a majority (56%) thought the landing was not worth the money spent. A separate Harris poll, in 1971, however, found that 81% of Americans agreed with the statement that “nothing can equal seeing the astronauts land and walk on the moon as it happened live on TV.”
In fact, as we dug through data archives of the National Opinion Research Center’s General Social Survey – which has been asking the public for 40 years about their views of space exploration and federal funding for it — we found that Americans are consistently more likely to say that the U.S. spends too much on space exploration than too little. At no time has more than 20% of the public said that the U.S. spends too little on space exploration.
via Americans keen on space exploration, less so on paying for it | Pew Research Center.
Actually, I suspect this isn’t unique to the space program. We as Americans seem to want the benefits of a lot of these programs, we just don’t want to pay for them. In the case of NASA, I wonder how many Americans realize that only 0.5% of the federal budget goes there. Probably about the same number who understand that foreign aid is around 1.4% of the budget.
SelfAwarePatterns 
The total cost of the Iraq War was greater than NASA’s budget through its entire life time including the Moon landings. The same is true of the controversial bank bailout. People have a hard time understanding big numbers without some kind of comparison.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’d wish we could actually pool our resources when it comes to space exploration. All nations should be able to contribute funds (to NASA or whoever) as a collective effort.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree. It’s largely what happened with the ISS. Unfortunately, given what’s happening with Russia, it might be the high water mark.
LikeLike
True, but countries like Australia, my home, and Brazil, my second home, should help finance NASA. Brazil, though, does have a space program, but helping out on earth observation platforms which everyone benefits from should be a given.
LikeLiked by 1 person