NASA Puts Kennedy Space Center Up For Rent

Looking for a really cool place to hold your kid’s Bar Mitzvah? Look no further than Kennedy Space Center!

The Washington Post is reporting that the NASA facility based in Cape Canaveral, Florida is going up for rent. For, what we are sure is going to be a decently large fee, you can rent one of Kennedy’s two mobile launch platforms. Or for the more risque you can choose to rent the world’s longest runway

It seems as if the Kennedy Space Center is too expensive to maintain in its current state and too expensive to tear down.

This year NASA is facing massive budget cuts in a country where balancing the budget is getting more and more difficult. NASA has already seen the government put an end to the shuttle program and there is no practical replacement on the way. Other NASA sections have seen their budgets slashed by up to 20%.

President Obama was one of the first to suggest that the government can raise revenue by selling or renting properties that are either unused or under utilized. Obama has proposed selling governmental buildings, courthouses and farm lands in order to bump up revenues to pay for governmental programs.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the government can raise up to $15 billion dollars by selling unused and underutilized properties.

While it may seem like a popular plan to sell or rent these buildings it is probably a lot more difficult than it sounds like. These buildings were built for very specific reasons and their architecture usually shows this. Getting permits to demolish and rebuild on these sites could place builders in a difficult place.

Do you think the government should sell or rent properties in order to raise revenues?