A new nonprofit organization that's supposed to take charge of expanding scientific research on the international space station has had a rocky first year, but now is starting to show what it can do.

The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space just signed one agreement with a company not traditionally linked to research in space: the sporting goods company Cobra Puma Golf.

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

CASIS was established to drum up interest in doing experiments by folks outside of NASA, including people who work at private companies, universities, or other federal agencies.

Or, as CASIS puts it in a promotional video, the mission is to "seek out those ready to put their ideas into orbit and to get them there."

How CASIS Can Work

"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.

I'd give them a D-plus overall.

- Keith Cowing, NASAwatch.com

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

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Fledgling NASA Nonprofit Starts To Liftoff