The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and NASA awarded the lease of Hanger One, a Silicon Valley icon, to Planetary Ventures LLC, a Google Company, further intertwining the two entities' fates in an attempt to reduce unnecessary spending.  

The lease stipulates that Google gives Hanger One a facelift and also requires the Mountain-View based search behemoth to take over operations at Moffet Federal Airfield, currently run by NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The lease requires Planetary Ventures to eliminate NASA's operations and maintenance costs at Moffet Airfield.

"At NASA we're not only committed to exploring our solar system, but also making sure we're spending tax dollars wisely. That's why we've been so aggressive at making surplus or under-utilized property available to the private sector or other government partners," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement Monday.

"The agreement announced today will benefit the American taxpayer and the community around Moffett. It will allow NASA to focus its resources on core missions, while protecting the federal need to use Moffett Field as a continued, limited-use airfield. This decision today represents a tremendously effective partnership between NASA and our sister agency the GSA, and we're grateful for their leadership in this endeavor."

Standing in at around eight acres, historic Hanger One was constructed in the 1930s as a massive house for a certain airship known as the USS Macon. NASA took over Hanger One in 1994, but cites ballooning costs as a huge turn off. In return for handing over the keys to Planetary Ventures, NASA expects Google to do some remodeling, including, but not limited to, the creation of a public educational facility and upgrading the existing golf course.

"NASA's partnership with the private sector will allow the agency to restore this treasure for more efficient use. GSA's creative approach to putting underperforming federal facilities to new uses creates opportunities for development while eliminating NASA's management costs of the airfield and saving taxpayer dollars," said GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini.

While Google's exact intentions with Hanger One are still unclear, the company is aggressively pursuing robotics, leading many to believe that it could become a house many of Google's robots. Google acquired eight robotics firms in 2013, including Boston Dynamics, a robotics firm with heavy ties to DARPA and the developer behind such robots as the heavy load-carrying BigDog, the 30-feet-high jumping SandFlea, and the world's fastest legged robot, the Cheetah.

It has also recently come to light that Google and tech contractor Foxconn, the company behind the construction of popular devices like the iPhone, are interested in working together. Google will apparently provide robotics services that will upgrade the automated production line Foxconn is gunning for.

Google's interest in furthering its robotics research is well known, and could be part of what Hanger One is used for.

This isn't the only relationship Google has with Ames, as the two have reportedly been linked to science mission flights in the past. As Wired reports, some have criticized Google for taking advantage of its relationship with Ames in order to cheaply run private jets for its executives, as only 155 of the 1,000 scheduled flights were actually used for any science. Whether or not this will happen at Moffet Airfield remains to be seen.