NASA has a rather large PR department, adjacent to a large
"technology licensing" department, all of which is intended
to help support NASA operations' budgets. Their PR is on a
higher level than the ARRL's PR, but both tend to generate
a considerable number of MYTHS in their respective areas.
NASA pays people to write "MYTHS"...???
He probably was talking about the supposed "spin-offs"
from the space program to regular consumer products.
Many such were actually spin doctoring. But the space
program was/is still worth doing, and some products were
developed quicker because of it. ICs and such.