BY MAURICE TAMMAN
Florida Today
CAPE CANAVERAL -- Residents who live along Florida's Space Coast -- home of NASA's Kennedy Space Center -- are split over the value of John Glenn's return to space. Less than half of those polled by Florida Today said Glenn's mission is important to the space program or involves valuable scientific research.
Twenty-eight percent said his mission is good publicity, and another 22 percent said it is a waste of money.
Still, almost four out of five said they planned to watch Thursday's launch.
The scientific poll was based on responses of 400 residents of Brevard County, Fla., where Kennedy Space Center is located. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
Former Kennedy Space Center spokesman Mitch Varnes, who was not among those surveyed, said the poll showed that Space Coast residents know there are better candidates than Glenn for the experiments he will perform.
"Glenn's flight is little more than a public relations coup for NASA," Varnes said. "Give them credit for that, but looking at it from a taxpayer's point of view, it is a waste."
Still, Varnes said, he is excited to see Glenn return to space. "John Glenn is an American hero," he said. "I like to think that the public will pay closer attention to the space program after this, but I don't think they will."
Lee Arnold, former head of the Air Force Space Museum volunteer association at Cape Canaveral Air Station, said the poll showed that even in Brevard County, people are dubious of human spaceflight. Arnold, who was not polled, said interest in the shuttle program will wane after Glenn's flight.
"If I'm outside or I see it on TV, I'll watch it. But I'm not going to go out of my way," Arnold said.
The public is more interested in unmanned space exploration, he said.
Arnold pointed to last year's landing of NASA's Mars Pathfinder probe on the Red Planet as an example of inexpensive, useful exploration that captured the interest of Americans.
"The manned space program is at a crossroads," he said. "There is not the same interest as there was in the 1960s when we were in a Cold War."
But poll respondent John Wood, 71, of Cocoa said NASA needs to do research such as that planned on Glenn. Wood, a former Kennedy Space Center firefighter, also said he thinks Glenn's flight is a fitting way to honor an American hero.
"He's had quite a life," he said.
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