Space shuttle Columbia getting ready for STS-101 launch at LC-39A, via Wikipedia
It's not quite the space shuttle factory that NASA put up for sale awhile back, but if you've ever had a rocket lying around with no place to launch it, now's your chance to pounce. NASA just announced that it's looking for proposals to lease and maintain a former shuttle launch pad at Kennedy Space Center.
According to NASA's announcement, Launch Complex 39, Pad A is "a potentially useful, historically significant, launch platform for a commercial company or consortium, or other U.S. domestic entity, including state agencies, to use to support commercial launch activities while assuming financial and technical responsibility for [operation and management]." Hey, it's potentially useful!
In its documents pertaining to the lease, NASA doesn't outline how much it's looking for. (It does mention that "chilled water, electricity, potable water, compressed air, and access to gaseous nitrogen is available at LC 39A," which is key.) But it's certainly worth a lot. LC-39A was one of the original two Kennedy launch pads built in the 60s to support the Apollo program.
Later in its life, it was adapted for use for shuttle launches, and now the second pad (LC-39B, naturally) is being modified to support NASA's massive new Space Launch System, the largest rocket it's ever built, which will power the Orion deep space spaceflight program.
But maintaining massive launch complexes costs a hell of a lot of money, which is something NASA doesn't have right now. According to Reuters, NASA has leased, sold, or demolished more than 150 former shuttle facilities at Kennedy, which amounts to more than a million square feet.
The best option of the three for NASA is to lease out its old facilities, as it guarantees the facilities will remain mission-ready while simultaneously bringing in revenue and helping support new space operations. As space goes commercial, the biggest goal for NASA right now is to get more people flying for less money, which will make its space operations more feasible in the future. I just can't wait for the day Kennedy opens for tourist launches.