Abstract: The author of the article offers an original approach to studying attitudes to space exploration in large age groups (schoolers and students) as well as how attitudes to space exploration and development of cosmonautics have been changing in our country over the past decade. The author also offers to study social and psychological aspects of  attitude of different social groups to space exploration during the last four decades. It is the author's opinion that space exploration can become the national idea of Russia in different social groups. The author shows that modern astronauts are most optimistic about it. The author uses a practical experiment to study the attitudes of the younger generation of Russian citizens towards cosmos and space exploration. By using an original questionnaire, the author has studied what ideas modern schoolers and students have about the timeline of space exploration, whether they would want to work on this problem, and so on. The author notes that there is a certain relation between the increase in interest towards space exploration in different social groups of our country and actual achievements in space exploration. Based on the results of research, the author concludes that at the present time the interest of the younger generation towards space exploration is growing. The author states that the idea of space exploration can become the national idea only if it is accepted by the younger generation. In order to make young people and teenagers interested in space exploration, it is necessary to develop a special pedagogical program for the younger generation.