Google flies in thanks to NASA

September 13, 2007
by Latitude

There were rumours, but now it is a reality and the Google 767-200 jet will be able to land at Mountain View’s Moffett Airfield, thanks to an ongoing relationship and deal with NASA.

Following on from Jackie’s blog, I just want to provide some extra detail on this Google story as it’s a bit of a bizarre one.

It was reported in the San Francisco Chronicle that Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page paid $1.3 million to NASA to enable this to happen. The $1.3 million is an annual rent, plus extra fees for utilities, fuel and parking.

The deal has come to reality in exchange for Google carrying scientific instrumentation for NASA and experiments on the plane, this is a federal airstrip which are normally off limits and restricted to civilians.

There has been some opposition from the locals in the area which the article in The San Francisco Chronicle article reports on more fully, but the concern is based around the number of flights the deal may include:

“NASA said in a statement that it doesn’t have any information about the number of flights planned under the agreement. However, the airport’s overall traffic will remain below 25,000 flights annually, as required by Moffett Field’s environmental impact statement, the space agency said.”

It will be interesting to see NASA’s stance when other wealthy parties from the Silicone Valley area start to ask the question of the possibilities of using Moffett Field. But for now it is another deal Google has managed to broker unlike any other.

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