Google signs $1b NASA air base lease Google will pay NASA more than $1 billion to rent a historic air base in California. GOOGLE is renting more than 400 hectares of a historic California air base for space exploration, aviation and robotics projects. NASA says a Google subsidiary will pay $US1.16 billion ($A1.26 billion) in rent over 60 years for the property. It's part of Moffett Airfield, a former US Navy air base in the San Francisco Bay Area that's also the home of NASA's Ames Research Centre. Google will manage the property, a local landmark, which includes a working airfield, private golf course and a massive hangar that was built to house dirigible-style Navy airships in the 1930s. The move should allow Google to conduct more testing closer to its California headquarters. Issues accessing US airspace prompted the company to test experimental delivery drones in the Queensland outback this year.