Googleplex, the corporate headquarters of Google, is located in Mountain View, California. The name is a play on "googolplex", the large number 10^(10^100). The complex includes a series of buildings with a combined area of 3,100,000 square feet, making it one of the largest office complexes in the world. It is renowned for its innovative design and employee-friendly amenities such as fitness centers, nap pods, and gourmet cafeterias.
The site features a variety of sculptures, including a T-Rex skeleton named "Stan," which stands as a reminder to Google employees not to let the company go extinct. The Googleplex also houses a replica of the SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded spacecraft to reach the edge of space.
Moffett Field is an airfield located near Sunnyvale, California, and is managed by NASA's Ames Research Center. Originally established in 1931 as a naval air station, it was later transferred to NASA in 1994. The field is home to one of the world's largest freestanding structures, Hangar One, which covers eight acres. The hangar was originally built to house the USS Macon, a rigid airship used by the Navy.
Moffett Field also hosts the NASA Ames Research Center, which conducts research in areas such as astrobiology, supercomputing, and robotics. The center is known for its work on the Kepler Mission, which has discovered thousands of exoplanets.
In Sunnyvale, you'll find the headquarters of many notable tech companies, including Yahoo!, LinkedIn, and AMD. Sunnyvale is part of Silicon Valley, a region known for its high concentration of tech firms and innovation. The city’s name was inspired by the sunny climate of the area, and it officially became Sunnyvale in 1912.
The region is also known for its aerospace history. Lockheed Martin has a significant presence in Sunnyvale, contributing to both commercial and defense aerospace projects. Their facility once played a crucial role in the development of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Despite the high-tech environment, Sunnyvale maintains a balance with nature. The Sunnyvale Baylands Park offers 70 acres of wetlands and parkland, providing a habitat for various bird species and a place for residents to enjoy outdoor activities.