Americans Think Ending Space Shuttle is Bad for the Nation

With the space shuttle Atlantis touching down on Thursday, a chapter of space exploration ended -- and a new poll found that Americans are not happy about it.

A poll released by CNN /Opinion Research found that 50 percent of those surveyed believed that the federal government pulling the plug on the space shuttle program was bad for the nation. Only 16 percent of those surveyed thought that ending the program, which has been based in Florida and exploring space for 30 years, was good for America. A third of Americans -- 33 percent -- thought that ending the space shuttle program would have no impact on the country.

The poll also found that Americans have more faith in the private sector to continue space exploration than they do in NASA. More than half of those surveyed -- 54 percent -- thought that private companies would take the lead on continued exploration, while 38 percent thought the federal government should continue as the primary conduit on space matters.

The poll of 1,009 American adults was taken between July 18-20 and had a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.

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