In 2023, the U.S. House of Representatives, newly under Republican control, sought to limit federal spending, creating a potentially dangerous situation for American space exploration and NASA. Given the budget situation, it may be beneficial for NASA to look to its existing geographic footprint for areas of deeper support to provide elected leaders with an electoral justification to support NASA missions. The areas with the greatest chance of generating support for NASA are spaceports due to the rocket launches they support serving as focusing events for NASA.
Rather than focusing as past scholars have on specific regions, this research examines driving distance from the Kennedy Space Center to provide more detail about the possible relationship between geographic proximity to spaceports and views of NASA. To test for the existence of this proximal relationship and the impact of viewing rocket launches on opinions of NASA, the study fielded an original online survey to gather U.S. residents' opinions about NASA, as well as information on where they lived and on how frequently they view rocket launches. Employing bivariate and multivariate regression models, the responses were analyzed to explore the relationship between geographic proximity to the primary spaceport and exposure to rocket launches on respondents' reported views of NASA.
This study found that as respondents' distance from the Kennedy Space Center increased, positive views of NASA decreased. Additionally, respondents who viewed the launch of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket had more positive views of the agency than others. Overall, these results indicate that direct exposure to NASA activities, facilitated either by living near the Kennedy Space Center or by viewing the SLS launch is associated with more positive perceptions of NASA. The hypothesis that rocket launches can impact views of space exploration was supported based on analyses of reported online and in-person viewership that suggested notable relationships with opinions of commercial launch providers. Yet, even though the models found support for this relationship, they suggested that other factors likely are also important to fully understanding the relationship. NASA's future public engagement strategies evidently should focus on narrowing the awareness gap of NASA activities for those further away from spaceports and do not have direct exposure to the agency. / Master of Arts / In 2023, the U.S. House of Representatives, newly under Republican control, sought to limit federal spending, creating a potentially dangerous situation for American space exploration and NASA. Given the budget situation, it may be beneficial for NASA to look to its existing geographic footprint for areas of deeper support to provide elected leaders with an electoral justification to support NASA missions. The areas with the greatest chance of generating support for NASA are spaceports due to the rocket launches they support serving as potential advertisements for NASA. Rather than focusing as past scholars have on specific regions, this research examines driving distance from the Kennedy Space Center to provide more detail about the possible relationship between geographic proximity to spaceports and views of NASA. Additionally, given that the impact of rocket launches on support for NASA has not been measured this study can help quantify support for NASA's most visible public events. To test for the existence of this relationship and the impact of viewing rocket launches on opinions of NASA, the study fielded an original online survey to gather U.S. residents' opinions about NASA, as well as information on where they lived and on how frequently they view rocket launches. Regression analyses are used to determine the impact of distance from the Kennedy Space Center and different modes of viewership of rocket launches on opinions of NASA. This study found that as respondents' distance from the Kennedy Space Center increased positive views of NASA decreased. Additionally, respondents who viewed the launch of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket had more positive views of the agency. Overall, these results indicate that direct exposure to NASA activities facilitated either by living near the Kennedy Space Center or by viewing the SLS launch can increase positive perceptions of NASA. NASA's future public engagement strategies evidently should focus on narrowing the awareness gap of NASA activities for those further away from spaceports and do not have direct exposure to the agency.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115125 |
| Date | 19 May 2023 |
| Creators | Reutt, Christopher Thomas |
| Contributors | Political Science, Hult, Karen M., Kitchens, Karin E., Faulkner, Brandy S. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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