Google takes over Moffett Field
The competition heats up: Google subsidiary Planetary Ventures has signed a $1 billion 60-year lease with NASA for use of Moffett Field in California.
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The competition heats up: Google subsidiary Planetary Ventures has signed a $1 billion 60-year lease with NASA for use of Moffett Field in California.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
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5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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The named management company is “Planetary Ventures LLC”. Was “Planetary Resources” as a subsidiary a slip on your part, ….or have things changed there, without me hearing about it? I know Paige and Ericson are on the BoD, but last I heard they were independent of Google.
My mistake, now corrected. I misread, inserting “Resources” where I read “Ventures” since that is what my brain expected.
As for whether this company is independent of Google, the news articles don’t seem to think so. They all describe it as a subsidiary of Google.
I think a few comments are in order.
1. NASA Ames got saddled with management of Moffett Federal Airfield because the Navy (Moffett NAS) and Air Force (Onizuka AFB) pulled out due to base closures. As a result, management of the field then went to NASA’s budget.
2. Through its subsidiary H211, Google offered in 2011 to pay to to re-skin the historic Hangar One; but NASA turned it down at the time. For additional insights, see http://www.nuqu.org/20111209/1332/
In addition to Google’s proposal (i.e., Planetary Venture’s), a couple of other proposals were submitted with a view toward maintaining the aerospace legacy of Moffett Field while pointing toward the future. I hope and trust that Google is open to working with the small, inventive aerospace start-ups in the Silicon Valley area.