Plum Brook's isolation serves a useful purpose. The site can perform rocket firings and other large-scale aerospace tests without endangering nearby civilians.

Despite its remote location, Plum Brook is highly active in forming links to the wider world. The station, an arm of NASA's Glenn Research Center, conducts numerous tests for outside companies and agencies. On Thursday, for instance, the space power facility tested a protective rocket cover for the European Space Agency.

The European agency paid $3 million for the test. Plum Brook has been a leader within NASA in performing "full-cost reimbursable operations" -- activities that are paid for by an outside client. Eventually, numerous NASA centers are expected to conduct business in this way.

The purpose of such outside business is not to generate profits but rather to make full use of NASA facilities while helping the private sector. "The bottom line is, we have world-class facilities" at Plum Brook, says Carek. "It would cost in excess of $400 million to build facilities like this. Most companies simply could not afford that kind of investment."

"These are great national assets," he continues. "Rather than close them down -- because there's no one program that uses them continuously -- we make them available to primarily U.S. industry and other government agencies, and secondarily to the rest of the world."

The space power facility that Carek manages is a cylinder 100 feet high and 122 feet in diameter. It is used to simulate the severe conditions of space: air is sucked out to create a vacuum, and a "cryogenic wall" produces extremely low temperatures. Extreme heat and sunlight can also be duplicated.