Google takes over NASA’s Hangar One with plans to restore it

Google has taken over the lease at the airfield that houses Hangar One — the giant eight-acre aircraft hangar that was built in 1933 to house massive dirigibles and now is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Silicon Valley. On Monday, NASA said that Google subsidiary Planetary Ventures LLC had been selected to take over the blimp hangar and operate the Moffett Federal Airfield that is already home to Google’s fleet of private jets.

Google has long operated its fleet of private jets out of NASA’s Moffett Field thanks to a long-standing deal with the U.S. government, but it looks like it’s ready to expand its presence at the Silicon Valley airfield. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and NASA today announced that Planetary Ventures LLC, a shell company Google occasionally uses for its real-estate deals, has been selected as the preferred lessee for Moffett Field and Hangar One. The iconic Hangar One will be rehabilitated under this proposal. Google had previously triedto work with NASA to revamp the hangar, but was rebuffed by NASA at the time. Just a few years ago, the Navy stripped the toxic panels from the structures outside and, currently, only its skeleton remains.