Launch Pad for Rent: NASA Leases Out Florida's Launch Complex 39A

NASA's shuttle launch pads in Florida have remained relatively quiet since the space shuttle Atlantis blasted off for the last time nearly two years ago. Now, the space agency is making use of the old launch pads. It has put out an essential "for rent" sign.

On Thursday, NASA announced that it's looking for commercial operators to use Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. It's expected that at least two privately owned space exploration companies will bid for the contract.

"Such commercial use would not only preserve the pad against the deterioration that would result from nonuse, it would further support NASA in fulfilling its mandate to, 'seek and encourage, to the maximum extent possible, the fullest commercial use of space,'" the agency wrote in its solicitation, according to Discovery News.

The facility that NASA is currently renting is historic. It's just one of two launch pads that were built in the 1960s in order to support the Apollo moon program, according to Reuters. Later, the pads were modified in order to be used with the space shuttles, which began flying in 1981.

Currently, NASA is focused on the Space Launch System and Orion, which is the next-generation deep space mission. It's designed to carry astronauts to destinations far past the International Space Station.

"We remain committed to right-sizing our portfolio by reducing the number of facilities that are underused, duplicative or not required to support the Space Launch System and Orion," said the space center's director, Bob Cabana, in a statement.

Instead, NASA plans to develop the second launch pad, 39B, for its heavy-lift SLS rocket and Orion capsule, a follow-on to the space shuttle that is needed to send astronauts far beyond the space station's orbit. Yet SLS launches are only expected every year or two years, which means that NASA is also looking for commercial partners to use this pad.

Anyone want to rent a launch pad?