December 25, 2006
By Mary Grady,
Contributing Editor (AVWeb)
Starting at 2 a.m. Mountain Time on Sunday, Christmas Eve, visitors to NORAD’s Web site will be able to track Santa’s progress around the world online. NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, has been offering the Santa-tracking updates for over 50 years. Four high-tech systems are used to do the job — radar, satellites, Santa Cams and jet fighter aircraft, the site says. Originally a phone-in service, with updates mainly heard via news shows and radio, the Web site has been tracking Santa online since 1998. Last year, the site got over 900 million hits. Other options are available, too. Google Earth uses its satellite imagery to capture activity on the runway at the North Pole, and Flight Explorer is watching Santa’s flight plans and practice flights. The sites might require that you download special software, so visit early and be sure you’re ready to go when the big night arrives. For more about NORAD’s tracking project, listen to AVweb’s Friday podcast — NORAD Project Officer Major Stacia Reddish explains how the defense group got into the Santa-tracking business and how it performs this unique mission.Copyright Aviation Publishing Group. All rights
Also
NASA’S KSC Helping Santa On Christmas
Sat, 23 Dec ’06 (Aero-News)
New Radar To Help Locate Missing Presents
The Debris Imaging Radar System, used during the night launch of NASA’s space shuttle mission STS-116, is a new system at Kennedy Space Center in Florida NASA will make available to Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.
The system is designed to identify debris falling from the shuttle during launch. NASA says it will help the jolly old elf the night before Christmas. Since his elves have gifts piled high on Santa’s sleigh, NASA can determine with great accuracy if any fall off. The radar system is capable of high-definition radar imagery giving it the ability to determine the approximate shape, size and weight of any falling packages.
NASA managers say the system will also help in package recovery so no child is disappointed by not receiving the presents the jolly fellow promised. The radar has an auto-track mode so that it can be left unattended on Christmas Eve and still perform its intended function. The system will be automatically activated once NASA’s air traffic control radar located on north KSC has made radar contact with Santa’s sleigh.
Also of assistance to Santa this year is the new Differential Global Positioning Satellite System ground station at the Shuttle Landing Facility. These new GPS antennas located near the control tower can help if there is an emergency. Since the sleigh is now GPS equipped, it can guide Santa to a landing within 10 feet of the runway’s centerline, regardless of which end of the runway he needs to use.
Though Shuttle Landing Facility personnel will be on holiday leave, officials at the NASA Tower have agreed to provide the customary support by turning the landing lights on before they depart for Christmas, as well as turning on the TACAN radio homing beacon and the visual alternating green and white lighted rotating beacon.
NASA will use the orbiter Discovery to mimic Santa’s sleigh during the STS-116 landing currently planned for Friday, to test these two new systems operating in auto-track mode. If the orbiter is waved off to land on the West Coast, the Shuttle Training Aircraft will be used to simulate Santa’s sleigh.
If Santa needs help, one of the primary radio frequencies normally used for communication in restricted airspace will still be monitored by the Air Force Eastern Range and also NASA security.
