Tech Shout!

Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are all set to pay NASA a whopping $1.3 million a year to park their personal Boeing 767-200 jet airplane at the US Space agency’s airfield.

Interestingly, the Google duo’s airplane is three times larger than most executive jets. In fact, the sprawling size of the plane, prompted the Google founders to negotiate a two-year deal with NASA that would allow them to take off, land and park the Boeing at a NASA-managed airport.

Conveniently, this NASA-managed airport, which is known as Moffett Federal Airfield, is just a 10-minute drive from Google’s Mountain View, California headquarters.

Interestingly, Page and Brin will pay NASA $1.3 million annually for the use of its airfield, which is usually off-limits to private planes. Besides, paying NASA, the two have also made a commitment to fly NASA’s equipment on research missions.

Under this agreement that was signed on August 1, NASA will occasionally get to place instruments and researchers on Google planes. The agreement also includes parking of a few free flights which are strictly for scientific reasons.

But, NASA has already taken advantage of its new arrangement with Page and Brin, by suing the Google plane on August 31 this year, to help study the Aurigid meteor shower.

Google had first expressed an interest in NASA’s Moffett Field around two years ago when it had announced plans to build up to 1 million sq feet of office space at the Ames Research Center and collaborate with NASA on various research projects.