It's not the same as an eBay auction, but if you happen to have a bit of extra cash lying around and fancy yourself a launchpad for the space shuttle, or a 15,000-foot landing strip (presumably also for a space shuttle that you plan to send into orbit), then NASA is ready to entertain your bids.

Since the agency will no longer be using a number of its space shuttle preparation and launch facilities  the last official shuttle flight returned to Earth in July 2011  NASA is now quietly accepting offers for its locations and equipment from interested parties. The auction block includes Orbiter Processing Facilities, part of NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building, Launch Pad 39A, a parachute-packing plant, and other buildings and undeveloped NASA property.

Here's the kicker, though: NASA isn't looking to quickly auction off its wares because it needs the money in a faster-than-normal fashion. Rather, federal funding for its facilities will officially run out by the end of this year. When that happens, NASA's equipment and buildings will begin to deteriorate to the point until they're unable to be used by anyone  a situation NASA would prefer to avoid.

"We have a lot of things in discussion, realizing that these major facilities have been funded by the space shuttle program," said Joyce Riquelme, NASA's director of KSC planning and development, in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel. "And the facilities out here can't be in an abandoned state for long before they become unusable. So we're in a big push over the next few months to either have agreements for these facilities or not."

If you're expecting to find some large online listing of NASA's stuff, however, you're going to be disappointed. In actuality, the agency has agreed to accept proposals privately for its facilities and equipment  those looking to purchase won't know what competitors have bid, nor does NASA plan to publicly release a list of interested parties at this point.

The agency notes, however, that those looking to make serious bids for its facilities or equipment should probably be pitching some kind of space-related use for them. Although, non-space-related proposals will be considered, "under certain circumstances," the Orlando Sentinel said.

Assuming, of course, you can come up with a really killer idea for a 15,000-foot runway.

For more tech tidbits from David Murphy, follow him on Facebook or Twitter (@thedavidmurphy).

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