[Enlightened1]

I disagree. A lot of spin off technology came to the us from NASA. Here is a partial list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technologies

[oh8eleven]

A lot of spin off technology came to the us from NASA.
I disagree for two reasons: 1) You (i.e. the list) assume these items could only have been invented exclusively by NASA. 2) There isn't a single item on that list that has any significance whatsoever.
So I say again - for 30 freakin' years the Shuttle went up, the Shuttle came down, the Shuttle went up, the Shuttle came down ... and WTF did we get in return?
And BTW, the linked page has this caveat - "Below are 27 abstracts of products claimed to be NASA spin-offs."