Everyone knows Tang was invented for NASA for use in space. It made the water from the power generators more palatable since drinking water from a battery isn't the most pleasant taste since Perrier Water. While Tang went into space starting with Project Mercury, Tang was first created in 1957 by General Foods and first sold in 1959. Tang, did however, heavily market its use in space and eventually became "the drink invented by NASA..." As the saying goes, when the lie becomes the truth, print the lie...

There was, however, another product that came out of our efforts to develop rockets; a product that would become, and remain, a must have household item long after Tang ceased being a staple at dinner tables everywhere. The Atlas rocket, an ICBM and satellite booster that later was used to launch the first American into orbit, Ohioan John Glenn, was a very fragile rocket. It had a very thin, non load-bearing, skin and used ballon tanks which kept the rocket in shape when fueled;  but had to be pressured with N2 when not fueled to keep it from coming apart.

Corrosion of the thin skins were a concern and so Convair went looking for a material  to prevent corrosion. One way to do that is to displace the water from the metal, thus stopping the corrosion reaction. Convair turned to a small company, Rocket Chemical Company (RCC), that was developing a water displacement formula to see if it could be used on Atlas. Developing a working product wasn't easy, but finally on the 40th try RCC succeeded, and the product was first used on Atlas rockets. The product was a success, so much so that some engineers took some home for use, and Rocket Chemical Company decided to put the product in aerosol cans and sell it commercially. But what to call their 40th attempt at a water displacement solution? Why WD-40, of course. And thus their chemical solution became a key component of every handyman's toolbox, right next to duct tape.