Correct. Both NASA and military applications have driven many technological innovations which have spurred the economy forward.
It is not a coincidence that many, if not most, of the key innovations which we enjoy today can trace their ancestry back to one of the following:
- The arms race in the 1980's where the Reagan years put our country into deeper debt, but ultimately paid off with bankrupting the Soviet Union.
- The space race of the 1960's where the mission of NASA gave us scores of intentions from condensed, freeze dried foods to thin, light termal protection.
- The war years of the 1940's which laid the groundwork for the industrial infrastructure to support almost everything since.