Tracking Santa
Screenshot of the NORAD Santa Tracker
For those of us with young children the excitement of gifts brought by a kind old man in the middle of the night makes it hard to sleep the night before. I remember as a young child listening to the radio for his next destination hoping that I would be able to fall asleep before he came to my home town.
Tracking Santa
A lot has changed since I was a child – especially technology. Through the use of the Internet we may now tap into up-to-date flight information by visiting the NORAD Santa web site.
NORAD is the North American Aerospace Defense Command – a joint venture of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace monitoring and defense for the two nations. Every year on Christmas Eve NORAD monitors Santa’s flight around the world.
The program to track Santa is run by volunteers and actually dates back to Christmas Eve 1955 when an incorrect phone number to call Santa was published. Instead of reaching the department store that published the number, the children reached the Colorado Springs’ Continental Air Defense Command – a precursor to NORAD. Colonel Shoup, who was in command that night, decided to have his staff give the children the latest information on Santa’s flight rather than tell them they dialed the wrong number. Thus the monitoring of Santa’s flight was born.
The website
The website is located at http://www.noradsanta.org/ and includes an image of a flying Santa embedded on top of Google Maps. I must warn you that using the Santa tracker at home with your children may get them so excited that they may not be able to sleep tonight but it is a lot of fun to watch him fly around the world.
Wishing you a safe and happy holiday season
For many of us this time of year is one of spending time with family and friends and for reflection. This year has been quite an exciting and eventful one for us and we look forward to continuing serving you in 2012.
On behalf of Sigma Rockets I would like to wish everyone a safe and a happy holiday season.
©2011 Sigma Rockets and Aerospace Inc.
