The amount we spend funding that is infinitesimally small when compared to the amount of money we spend on militarization and armament... so you have bigger targets to go after on wasted money/effort than space research. 
You could say we've taken a lot of technology from military and armament as well......
If that was the case we'd have a USSF (United States Space Force) and we haven't passed that through congress yet.
Filtration, systems, rechargeable batteries, velcro, efficient air conditioning units, solar panels, lightweight alloys, efficient heat shields, ceramics, a laundry list of poly-chemicals, wire ties, and TANG. 
off the top of my head. TANG!
Ceramics? What do you mean specifically? (I am interested, not just picking on you, though its fun prodding mods).
Miss placed comma there, 
but ceramics as part of the heat shield of the space shuttle, had never been done before. A lot of the advancements there were responsible for carrying over into things like ceramic turbo spool blades.
Cool, there's a section on one of my textbooks about that, I suppose I should read it.
