Google Inc. confirmed Wednesday that it will build up to 1 million square feet of offices at NASA Ames Research Center and collaborate with the space agency on research surrounding topics such as supercomputing that could benefit everything from moon launches to online searches.

The new partnership will involve R&D on biotechnology, information technology and nanotechnology, as well as supercomputing. The news article notes some of the mutual benefits: "Google stands to gain from learning about NASA's supercomputers, which could come in handy as the Mountain View search engine compiles even bigger indexes of information and video. NASA leaders cited the benefits of getting access to Google's search expertise to pick out nuggets of information from the volumes of data streaming back from satellites and human space launches."

"Google and NASA share a common desire to bring the universe of information to people around the world," said Eric Schmidt, in a statement. "Imagine having a wide selection of images from the Apollo space mission at your fingertips whenever you want it."

Great, no?