SACRAMENTO — Google Inc. wants a share of Virgin Galactic’s space-tourism business, and California lawmakers could not be happier, or more legally prepared.

In an attempt to transform the state’s high desert into an international space travel hub, Gov. Jerry Brown in 2012 signed into law liability-limiting protections for private space-flight companies, such as Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX.