spacetoday.net: Google subsidiary to lease airfield and hangar at NASA Ames

Posted: Tue, Feb 11, 2014, 7:24 AM ET (1224 GMT)
Hangar One at NASA Ames (NASA)

A subsidiary of Internet giant Google has won a bid to lease and take control over the airfield and an iconic hangar at NASA's Ames Research Center. NASA and the General Services Administration announced Monday that they will enter into negotiations with Planetary Ventures LLC, a subsidiary of Google, for a lease agreement for Moffett Federal Airfield, adjacent to NASA Ames. Planetary Ventures will be responsible for management of the airfield as well as the rehabilitation of Hangar One, the giant hangar originally built to accommodate dirigibles. Google, whose headquarters is near Ames, has used the airfield for its private jets under a lease agreement with NASA that also allowed the agency to use those planes for scientific research, but that deal has been criticized by some for giving Google a taxpayer-subsidized deal that offered little in return the NASA.