Google Signs 60-Year, $1 Billion NASA Lease

BY BRANDON BAILEY
Associated Press Technology Writer

SAN FRANCISCO — Google is renting 1,000 acres of a historic California air base for space exploration, aviation and robotics projects.

NASA says a subsidiary of the giant Internet company will pay $1.16 billion in rent over 60 years for the property. It’s part of Moffett Field, a former U.S. Navy air base in the San Francisco Bay Area that’s also the home of NASA’s Ames Research Center.

Google will manage the property, a local landmark, which includes a working airfield, private golf course and a massive hangar that was built to house dirigible-style Navy airships in the 1930s. Google plans to refurbish three hangars on the property.

NASA says the deal will save it $6.3 million in annual maintenance and operation costs.