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Most Russians believe the country should go ahead with space exploration — poll

They say it is needed for the sake of developing science and high technologies, as well as for maintaining the country’s defenses, according to a news release uploaded to the pollster’s website

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MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. An overwhelming majority of respondents polled by VTsIOM (91%) believe that Russia should participate in space exploration for the sake of developing science and high technologies, as well as for maintaining the country’s defenses, says a news release uploaded to the pollster’s website on Monday.

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"Russia must push ahead with space exploration, said 91% of the polled Russians. In 2018-2019 the rate was as high (90%). Such an answer is slightly less frequent in the group of younger Russians aged 18-24 (84%). Fifteen percent in this age group (in contrast to 7% of all respondents questioned) think that Russia has no need for exploring space," VTsIOM said.

In the group of those who believe that Russia should participate in space exploration 52% said the country needs this for the development of science and high technologies, 44% said it is essential for keeping the nation’s defenses in the proper shape, 10% are certain that this will help develop the aerospace industry and create new jobs and also enable Russia to compete on an equal footing with the United States, the European Union and China. Another 17% said that this would enhance the country’s prestige in the international scene.

As many as 75% respondents are certain that Russia should not cut the budgets of its space programs.

The polled audience is split over the issue whether Russia should seek to be the first to send a crewed mission to Mars: 42% are certain that it should, while 48% think it should not.

"The former view is shared most often by people with secondary, vocational and incomplete education (45%-47%), while the latter is supported by respondents with complete or incomplete higher education (54%)," the pollster said.

Asked about the date of the first manned space flight, 69% of Russians answered correctly and 97% of the questioned correctly named the first cosmonaut - Yuri Gagarin.

The VTsIOM-Sputnik opinion poll was held on April 8, 2021. The pollster questioned an audience of 1,600 Russians aged over 18. The maximum margin of error was 2.5% with a probability of 95%.

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