Google announced on Wednesday its new deal with NASA, which will lead to a lease of a 42.2 acres area of unimproved land, located at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. Google plans to build a massive office and research facility of about 1.2 million square feet.

The lease expands on a 40-year time period, with the possibility of five ten-year extensions and a number of periodic rent increases. The initial rent paid by Google will be of $3.66 million a year.

According to Pete Worden, director of NASA Ames, the agreement represents the beginning of a new era of successful teamwork between the two companies.

The construction of the facility will require three separate phases, with the first ending in September 2013, the second in 2018 and the third by 2022. The project will include numerous offices and research facilities, several areas for dining, fitness, conferences, child care, parking and also a set of improvements to aid NASA’s operations.

BBC News quoted Mr. Worden saying that the new campus and the major expansion of NASA’s Research Park will support the agency’s mission of leading the nation in its plans for space exploration, future science discoveries and aeronautics research.

The two companies began their work together back in September 2005 and the collaboration has led so far to the completion of the Planetary Content project which develops software needed by scientists to publish planetary data on the Internet, the maps in Google Moon and also NASA’s layer in Google Earth.