Space technology in the 60s certainly resulted in wider benefit. Today? There's definitely some innovation happening, but broadly (compared to, say, consumer el

Space technology in the 60s certainly resulted in wider benefit. Today? There's definitely some innovation happening, but broadly (compared to, say, consumer electronics) space is an incredibly slow moving, incredibly risk averse field. It often takes decades for components developed for other fields to end up in space. A satellite today will probably be filled with electronic components designed 20 years ago. Justifying doing anything new is hugely expensive and so rarely happens. Ultimately, in the past designing for space was a new field with rapid development but as the field has matured the huge cost involved in launching anything has made the whole industry hugely risk averse. There is innovation happening from new players (cube sats, spacex), but even these areas are mostly about finding cheaper ways to do things rather than inventing new stuff.