Track Santa flight online
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is tracking Santa's big night for the 64th year.
It all began on Christmas Eve, 1955, when the direct line to the Pentagon at Continental Air Defense Command (NORAD's predecessor) rang.
Instead of a four-star general on the other end of the line with bad news, a little voice asked "Are you Santa Claus?"
Duty commander Air Force Col. Harry Shoup thought at first that one of his staff was playing a joke. He quickly realized it was a child put on his best Santa voice assuring the young caller that the U.S. Air Force was on the job and would guarantee Santa a safe flight from the North Pole.
After talking with the child's mother who pointed him to the Sears ad in that morning's Colorado Springs Gazette. The number printed in a Sears ad, which ironically cautioned the kiddies to "be sure to dial the correct number" was off by one digit.
Shoup put several airmen on that red phone for the remainder of the evening to answer calls and a tradition was born.
Today volunteers work at the NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center in two hour shifts answering more than 100,000 calls at 877-HI-NORAD (877-446-6723) and over 10,000 emails to noradtrackssanta@outlook.com.
https://www.noradsanta.org debuted in 1998 and sees about 9 million visitors each year. The website is built on the same 3D geospatial graphics engine used by NASA and others use to visualize launches, spacecraft orbits and other data in three-dimensions.
An Air Force spokesperson explains that the evening starts with a Federal Aviation Administration, weather and air mission brief from today's commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, General Glen Vanherck.
Santa thanked his new military friends, wishing them a Merry Christmas and promising he and his team of reindeer will"follow all of your directions. We will maintain our flight and our speed according to plan."
Other tracking sites
Santa moves pretty fast, so once I switched to Flight Radar24's view of Flight number R3DN053 Santa had reached at 752 knots at an altitude of 60,000 feet over northern Finland. Moments later, Planefinder.net had callsign SANTA23 over Madegascar.
Google's Santa Tracker includes local guides for Santa's next stop. The most useful feature for parents might be the estimated time of Santa's arrival at your location.
