Most Americans approve of NASA’s new $10 billion James Webb Telescope, poll says

Joseph Guzman | July 20, 2022
·2 min read
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Story at a glance

  • A recent YouGov poll found most Americans believe the development of the James Webb Space Telescope is a good investment.

  • The survey also found widespread support for previous space programs.

  • The telescope will spend the next several decades gathering information and images on the first galaxies that formed in the early universe.

NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope developed to peer into the deepest corners of space cost taxpayers some $10 billion and a new poll suggests Americans believe it was money well spent.

A recent YouGov poll of 1,000 U.S. adults found 35 percent of respondents said the James Webb Space Telescope — which was launched late last year and recently delivered the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe — is a very good investment and 25 percent believed it was a somewhat good investment. Just 13 percent said it was either a somewhat bad or very bad investment while 26 percent were unsure.

The poll was conducted July 14-18 following the release of the first images, which included galaxies billions of lightyears away that formed after the Big Bang.

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The survey also found widespread support for previous space programs. The majority of respondents said the Hubble space telescope, sending astronauts to the moon and sending probes to other planets are worthwhile investments. When it comes to support for NASA overall, 31 percent of Americans said they had a “very favorable” opinion of the space agency and 39 percent said they had a “somewhat favorable” opinion, compared to 14 percent who said they viewed the agency unfavorably.

When it comes to NASA’s budget, 27 percent said it should be increased, 32 percent said it should stay about the same while 14 percent want it reduced and 5 percent said it should be cut entirely.

The James Webb Space Telescope, which is a joint effort by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, is among some of the most costly scientific endeavors in history and has been in development over more than two decades. NASA’s largest and most powerful space telescope was initially supposed to cost much less but a combination of engineering and mismanagement led to delays and higher costs.

The telescope will spend the next few decades gathering information and images on the first galaxies that formed in the early universe.

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