Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is known for taking risks and thinking out of the box and this has been proven once again when Google signed a 60 year lease on NASA’s airfields located near the Silicon Valley.
The lease is for the old Moffet Field Naval Air Stations, which are located a few miles away from Google Campus in Mountain View. Apart from that Moffet Field also has NASA’s Aims Research center where research for the agency along the fields of supercomputing, lunar science and wind tunnels are being carried out. The Ames Research Center is not a small center; it has about 2,500 employees working there and has an annual budget of $860 million as per NASA’s report.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration commonly known as NASA is a U.S government agency that is responsible for the civilian space program along with the aeronautics and aerospace related research. US General Services Administration chose Google’s collateral associate Planetary Ventures LLC and NASA to go ahead with the lease in February. Followed by this decision the two companies began discussing the issues related to the lease agreement.
Google Inc. agreed to pay $1.6 billion in rent over the next 60 years for NASA’S property. Google plans to invest more money in renovating the property according to its requirements.
The 2 founders of Google Larry Page and Sergy Brin are famous for their inclination towards aviation and space research. Google is planning on spending around $200 million on project work related to fields of aviation, space exploration and robotics. Google was recently heard of purchasing small firms that will conduct research on satellite researching and robotics. Along with that the company also plans to open a museum of educational facility at the old Moffet Field showcasing the history of both Silicon Valley as well as the Moffet.
NASA agreed to put Moffet Field on lease because of the decreasing budget allotted to the company. By giving the property on lease NASA will no longer have to worry about taking money out for managing the field.
NASA administrator Charles Bolden said that the company wants to take its presence further in space and reduces its presence on earth. He also said that NASA wants to invest its money on scientific discoveries, technological developments and space explorations instead of spending it on maintaining infrastructure that are no longer useful for the company. NASA said that the company is saving $6.3 million after taking this decision.
NASA will continue operating at Ames Research Center while Google will take over the rest of the old Navy site. Google has not said much about what kind of research it will be conducting there but the fact that Robotics is a part of their venture is well known and some news related to Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) robots have been leaked as well. Google has already leased 72 acres of land at the airfield to build offices. Last April, a 29 acre, airport terminal was approved by the San Jose city council to accommodate jets of Google executives.
