Google wins contract to take over historic NASA-owned airfield

Google says it's won a contract to lease a NASA-owned historic airfield in California located just miles from the search giant's Silicon Valley headquarters.

Planetary Ventures, a Google-backed aeronautics company, has been awarded a contract to lease the historic Hangar One at Moffett Airfield, Mashable reported Tuesday.

Google executives have been parking their corporate jets at the NASA-owned field since 2007.

The deal with Google is one part of a larger effort to save tax dollars by "making surplus or under-utilized property available to the private sector or other government partners," NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement released Monday.

Under the agreement, Planetary Ventures will take over operational costs of the facility and rehabilitate it.

NASA took control of Moffett in 1994; previously, the giant Hangar One had been used by the Navy and other branches of the military.

NASA was forced to close the hangar in 2002, after discovering materials used to construct the building's outer siding in 1932 were the source of toxic PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyl.)

The Navy removed the hangar's skin in early 2013; Planetary Ventures is expected to re-skin the structure as part of its site rehabilitation work.