The following is a list of inventions that the general public believes was invented by NASA. The reality is, NASA did not invent any of these. I call these NASA Urban Legends. Lets look at these and clear up some misconceptions.

Tang

Tang was actually invented by the General Foods Corporation in 1957. John Glenn liked the taste and NASA used it on subsequent space missions. Tang was then associated with NASA and people assumed that NASA invented it.

Velcro

Velcro was actually invented by a Swiss engineer and his invention came 10 years before NASA used it. Invented in 1948 by Georges de Mestral. Mestral was also a mountaineer and he copied the way burrs would adhere to his socks when hiking.

Microwave Oven

Microwaves were actually invented in 1945 by Percy Spencer. Initially microwaves did not sell very well and the whole idea of mass marketing microwaves was almost initially abandoned. A microwave on shuttle and ISS missions is indespensible.

Teflon

Invented by Roy Plunkett of DuPont in 1938. Teflon was on some cooking pans before NASA even became an idea.

Microprocessors

Integrated circuitry was originally developed by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments in February of 1959. Most of the research and development of the microprocessor took place, and still does, at Intel. NASA was never involved in this development. NASA runs on integrated circuitry, without it, there would be no NASA.

Research on ISS

NASA is performing research on the ISS, but it is debatable as to how important this research is. It is very important to the scientists whole need to wait years to have simple research projects completed on the ISS. Most of the research that benefits mankind today is done on the ground. This does not preclude the need for NASA to perform research in a space environment. It is the type of research that people have a problem with. The problem is how can NASA do real research on human subjects, which is needed for an understanding of long term space exposure, when the sample size is always to small and the amount of time in space is always to short. Data is needed for long term space exploration flights. Comments encouraged.

This completes my list of NASA Urban Legends. These are some common misconceptions about NASA inventions. It should be noted that many developments and innovations have come from NASA. My next post will consist of the actual innovations that did come from NASA.