document: NASA space inventions benefit all our lives on Earth No , no Tang , but they did develop thousands of other life-changing products Contrary to popular belief , NASA did n't invent Tang . But the space agency 's contributions to people 's everyday lives here on Earth still run wide and deep . NASA 's primary charter is to explore and better understand the cosmos . But much of the technology NASA developed in reaching for the stars has filtered down to the masses , leading to innovations such as more nutritious infant formula and sunglasses that block harmful ultraviolet light . '' `` We get better airplanes , or we get better weather forecasting from space stuff , sure , '' '' said Daniel Lockney , program executive in technology transfer and spinoff partnerships at NASA headquarters in Washington , D.C. '' `` But we also get better-fed children . That kind of stuff , people do n't necessarily associate . '' '' Some of the highlights Some of the technologies most closely associated with NASA were utilized - and in some cases popularized - by the space agency rather than invented by its scientists . There 's the orange-flavored drink Tang , for instance , which was developed by General Foods in 1957 . Or Velcro , a Swiss invention from the 1940s . Or Teflon , a synthetic polymer that has found widespread use as an industrial lubricant and a nonstick coating for pots and pans . '' `` Teflon we get all the time , '' '' Lockney told Space.com . '' `` But that was DuPont . '' '' But the list of NASA inventions that have benefited the public is long and storied . There 's '' '' memory foam , '' '' for example , which today pads the helmets of football players and is used to manufacture prosthetic limbs . NASA scientists invented the substance in 1966 to make airplane seats safer and more comfortable . NASA research investigating the nutritional value of algae led to the discovery of a nutrient that had previously been found only in human breast milk . The compound , which is thought to be important to eye and brain development , has since found its way into 95 percent of the infant formula sold in the United States , Lockney said . There are many more . NASA research led to the development of sunglasses that block damaging blue and ultraviolet light , for example . One-third of all cell phone cameras use technology originally developed for NASA spacecraft . And in the 1960s , NASA scientists who wanted to enhance pictures of the moon invented digital image processing . The technology later found many other applications - particularly in the medical field , where it helped enable body-imaging techniques such as CAT scans and Magnetic Resonance Imaging -LRB- MRI -RRB- . A secondary benefit Since 1976 , NASA has been publishing a magazine called '' `` Spinoff '' '' that describes some of the technologies that have found their way into ordinary folks ' lives . '' `` Spinoff '' '' has detailed 1,723 such inventions to date , Lockney said - and that list is far from exhaustive . '' `` We 've got a very limited page count , '' '' Lockney said . '' `` So there 's stuff that does n't get put in the book . '' ''
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