Majority against end of shuttle program

Two-thirds of U.S. adults disapprove of ending the space shuttle program, citing the loss of the "everyday impact" of the science and technology, a poll shows. Sixty-four percent disapprove of the end of the space shuttle program, while 26 approve and 10 percent are unsure, the poll by IBOPE Inteligencia found. When asked about space exploration's role in advancing "science and technology that impacts everyday life on Earth," 83 percent said it was important. Just 12 percent said it was not important. When asked what the next biggest step in space exploration would be, respondents reported no clear consensus in the poll. Opinion was evenly split between building a more powerful telescope that can detect and photograph Earth-like worlds around other stars, building a colony on the moon, sending humans to Mars, building space vehicles to orbit Earth or sending a sample-gathering probe to Titan or Europa. The survey was conducted online with 1,879 U.S. adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points, IBOPE reported.