“At the moment, we don’t have the connections to the commercial ventures,” said Mitchell Colgan, director of the South Carolina Space Grant Consortium, which oversees the NASA-bound experiment program in the state. He also is chairman of the College of Charleston Geology Department.
Even with the loss of space research, those who have taken part in previous shuttle work say the experience will stay with them forever. College of Charleston professor Cassandra Runyon helped local high school teachers work with NASA to get their experiments on board one of the shuttles, stressing how crystals grow in micro gravity — an important function in pharmaceutical and engineering research.
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/jul/08/sc-shuttle-have-long-connection/
