Benzinga | Oct 14, 2021 03:31PM EDT

Reaching For The Stars: Half Of Americans Want To Fly Into Space

Where William Shatner goes, half of America wants to follow.

A new survey finds 49% of Americans are eager to climb into a rocket for a trip to the stars.

Beam Me Up: The new ValuePenguin survey that polled more than 2,000 adults found men were more enthusiastic than women about space travel (56% versus 46%) while the Gen Z crowd had more excitement over blast-off than the older baby boomers (63% versus 38%).

Of course, a ticket to ride in one of the new spacecrafts created by ex-Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) chief Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) chief Elon Musk's SpaceX or Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) is considerably more than a seat on Amtrak or a Greyhound bus.

Only 19% of the survey respondents said they would pay $100,000 or more for the chance to fly in one of those companies' spacecraft -- and, perhaps not surprisingly, 60% of respondents believed space travel should be accessible to everyone and not just the ultra-wealthy.

Open The Pod Doors: Furthermore, 41% of respondents believed billionaires should not be spending so much money on space travel, and one-quarter of respondents worried that frequent space travel could have consequences on climate change due to a high rate of emissions-per-passenger and spacecraft soot polluting the atmosphere.

But on the other hand, 28% of both men and Gen Zers said they would choose a free trip to space over being debt-free, while 23% of all respondents said they would rather take a trip into space rather than have the ability to wipe out their debt.

Related Link: Scientists Baffled By Strange Radio Waves Coming From The Milky Way

Photo: Courtesy Columbia Pictures.