Invincible Space Lair for sale

A nuke-proof space observation station in Carmel Valley, Ca., is up for sale. The asking price: $2,950,000. Able to take a 5 megaton blast, the Jamesburg Earth Station was built in the 1960s and was the first to receive live images from the moon during 1969's Apollo landing. Also included in the deal is 160 acres of land, an 11-storey antenna able to broadcast worldwide, a helipad, and a 3-bedroom home. [KSBW]

• [Ianto_Jones]

  * Note: 5-megaton blasts may cause severe damage to organic lifeforms within a 30 mile radius.  Seller makes no warranty as to the survivability of any non-structural elements of the property during thermonuclear detonations.  Seller accepts no responsibility for any incidental immolation or vaporization that buyer or buyer’s guests may experience.

• [MrsBug]

  Unless they have sharks with frickin’ laser beams, it’s not worth my time.

  • [Takashi Omoto]

    It’s hard to find a place with nice sharks with frickin’ laser beams that isn’t on self-destruct countdown.

• [marque cornblatt]

  Guns & Gardens need this for our zombie defense fortress.  Who’s willing to fund a kickstarter?  

  http://youtu.be/35Y7YDai1uo

• [Guest]

  So, is the new BB lair orbital or something? Why sell the place, guys?

• [Tom Pappalardo]

  Is it just me, or does that seem like a really good deal?

  • [gadgetphile]

    Sounds like a good deal, too bad it’s not in Carmel proper.

    And I bet getting broadband there is a challenge- it’s probably too far away from a telephone central office for DSL and why would a cable company want to dig cable all the way there?

    Oh well, it still would be too long of a commute for me.

    edit: okay, if it was built as a telephone relay link, maybe you can get DSL there. But I wouldn’t count on it.

    And here’s their sale page: http://www.jamesburgearthstation.com/

    • [Guest]

      i see what you did there. +2.

• [obeyken]

  This word “Space Station” you keep using… I don’t think it means what you think it means.

  • [artbyjcm]

    Actually, hit up the source, that’s what THEY said.

    • [obeyken]

      True enough.  I never know which pronoun to use when talking to the Internet.

  • [Rob Beschizza]

    I didn’t use the term “space station” even once.

    • [obeyken]

      again, my apologies for poor pronoun use.  i was talking to the article.

• [Listener43]

  They were supposed to give me time to make a counter-counter-offer before going public with the listing!
  I think I’ll look for a place in the UK instead.

• [Romeo Vitelli]

  “Able to take a 5 megaton blast”

  How is that actually determined?  And can you get your money back if the claim turns out to be false?

  • [Finnagain]

    Eternal life guaranteed or triple your money back!

• [jennchlebus]

  Built in the ’60′s, by the gubmint. Prolly chock fulla asbestos and lead… well it would have to have lots of lead, but you know what I mean.

• [Cameron Huff]

  Hmm, I don’t know.  It can only take a 5 megaton blast.  I would need something that can take at least a 6 megaton blast.

• [niro5]

  A perfect starter lair for a first time evil bond-villain.

• [Brett Kling]

  I totally see the guys who wrote The Venture Brothers buying this property.  LOL

• [Ianto_Jones]

  Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the potential of the Force.

• [awjt]

  What happens when you cross an invincible space lair with a 20-story abandoned missile silo lair?

  • [Guest]

    A new reboot of the Stargare universe?

• [beforewepost]

  The article has a few points wrong. The station was built as a relay link for telephone calls by COMSAT/AT&T, not the government.  It shut down in 2002 when trans-oceanic fiber optic links became cheaper than maintaining satellite relays.  

   Those of you who read the Puzzle Palace may recall this location as being the reason the NSA built a satellite receiving station at Point Sur.  COMSAT’s satellite beam was wide enough that the NSA could intercept transmissions without needing access to the physical site.

• [eolpm]

  You also inherit an employment contract with some guy named Torgo.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Torgo was hot.

• [Pete Johnson]

  so much want…

• [bo1ngbolnguser001]

  check your facts, Rob.  This station was not the first to receive live images of the moon landing.  Read the station’s website before posting an article next time http://www.jamesburgdish.org/

  • [Rob Beschizza]

    “Jamesburg Earth Station was the first to receive live images from the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969″

    I’m sure their article might be wrong, but I don’t really give a toss, because it’s still an invincible space lair.

  • [Carlson & Crashboy]

    Yah, Robbbbb. Sheesh.

• [Emo Pinata]

  Pretty sure we can squeeze a few more than three bedrooms out of that with some elbow grease.

• [Halloween Jack]

  Reality check: the closest thing to an original source that I can find is the owner, who has been trying to offload it for some time now. (I don’t want to be too hard on the guy–he wanted to get rid of the place after his son died–but an above-ground facility being able to survive a 5-meg hit just sounds more like hyperbole to me.)

• [Jim Saul]

  I think this is it:

  36°24’11.19″ N 121°38’47.36″ W

  In Google Earth if you look at the timeline for the imaging of the site taken on 6/6/2002 it sure looks like the saucer tilts.

• [lewis_stoole]

  i’d rather the boingboing cyber commune purchase huell howser’s volcano house, however, despite my immense displeasure and better judgement, i have dispensed five dollars via paypal to support the new collective fund for this particular secret lair.  all i ask is that if the bid wins, i will be allowed to sleep one night on the bearskin rug at the foot of the master’s bed.  it is not much to request.

• [Jim Saul]

  Knowing nothing about the relevant technology, could that kind of receiver be converted to radio astronomy?

• [Adam A]

  Whoa, Facebook has totally blocked this BoingBoing link …

• [Palomino]

  The address in the article is incorrect. Here’s a Google Map link.

  http://g.co/maps/cdd84

  and this: http://g.co/maps/s7n75,

• [jiraffa]

  “The property is in a Wi-Fi FREE valley” not to be confused with a valley full of free wifi