I believe that such medical devices as heart monitors which can be warn on one’s wrist and transmit data to one’s cardiologists were developed so that astronauts could be monitored here on earth.
On a closer-to-home level, I believe that the material that was developed to shield the nosecones from heat on reentry translated into Corningware which allows casseroles to go from the freezer into the oven.
The space program unleashed much research and development and has made our lives better
That heart monitor development predated the Shuttle. It was part of the capsule based programs. Most of the claimed innovations which are real are fruit of non-Shuttle space programs, imo. And even those, many of them would have been invented in other areas of human enterprise.
One NASA spin off that doesn’t get enough recognition is engendering/project/manufacturing management. There is a theme in the Apollo 13 Movie that too many people don’t recognize. The project management of the Apollo 13 equipment was so good that, after the explosion, the people on the ground knew every option available to the astronauts in space. They knew every screw, nut and inch of tape that was on that flight and they had the info available immediately. That level of engineering management did not exist before the Apollo project.
Today, almost every auto parts house in the Country can use those types of systems to identify a replacement part for your vehicle.
That’s just another spinoff of scientific/engineering development from NASA.