"I seem to remember that Teflon was discovered when space modules were designed, as it was an excellent heat shield. Is that correct?"

No, the material you are thinking about was used in Corning Ware and was invented by Corning, a private company, and supplied to NASA for the space program.

Accidents Happen...
As with many innovations, Corning Ware was a lab mistake. First a furnace malfunctioned -- instead of staying at 600C it rose to 900c, but surprisingly the glass didn't melt. Next mistake was when the chemist then dropped the white glass and it didn't break! These mistakes led to the creation of Pyroceram and eventually the first piece of Corning Ware in 1957. Pyroceram was introduced to NASA, and used in the space shuttle program. Eventually a total of seven generations of Corning Ware were produced and although the Blue Cornflower is synonymous with Corning Ware, many more patterns were produced.

The original CorningWare® bakeware which was first introduced in 1958, was made of a glass-ceramic material that could be used on the stove, in the oven and under the broiler. After World Kitchen acquired the brand in the late 1990's, CorningWare products were switched to ceramic stoneware production.

Teflon and Nylon were also invented by the chemical industry. Both By DuPont and both in 1938, although by different scientists.