Fledgling NASA Nonprofit Starts To Lift Off

With the space station however complete afterwards more than a decade of construction at a cost of around $100 billion, attention has turned to how to best use the station.

"There's some things that a nonprofit organization can do that NASA as a government entity can't do," says Marybeth Edeen, a manager at NASA's space station program.

Nonprofit can go out

A nonprofit can go out and talk with companies and make a case for how technology in orbit could potentially help their bottom line, Edeen says. A nonprofit can as well raise money from investors or charities.