You know, now that you say that, I realize you're right. In fact, velcro.com says that the idea came from a guy who got burrs on his pants.

But, it was in the textbook. Why? A quick googling of "velcro" and "NASA", and lo and behold, this site:
http://www.higp.hawaii.edu/~hamilton/spin.html
says that Velcro coming from NASA was kind of an urban myth. NASA used Velcro in its early space program (just watch Apollo 13) and that probably helped it to become popular.

So, what probably happened was that the chapter writers heard the myth, got a picture, and put it in the book for our young, impressionable minds to digest. I'll have to write HBJ and complain.

Good call. By the way, I actually ate ice cream while writing. Life officially cannot get better.