#TechTip: Follow Santa’s journey around the world via NORAD. Someone needs to clear the airspace for him!

Its Christmas Eve, and apart from all the flights speeding across the world to get people home in time for the holidays, there is one more very important flight that is speeding around the world right now.  And you can see where he is!

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, commonly referred to as NORAD, is a joint U.S. and Canadian military facility that tracks the airspace around North America.  Originally it was designed during the Cold War to keep an eye on Soviet Bombers infiltrating the sovereign airspace.

One day, back in 1955, a local Sears store printed a phone number for kids to call Santa directly.  Unfortunately there was a misprint in the newspaper’s advertisement, and the number printed was accidentally the number for the predecessor to NORAD.  When children started calling the number and asking about Santa, the duty officer told all his staff that evening to give reports on Santa’s location to the local children.  (He probably didn’t think there would be any harm in releasing such Classified information to young children!)

Since that day, NORAD has kept track of Santa’s journey from the North Pole around the world to children everywhere.  This year, NORAD  and others including the Canadian Department of National Defence, have made available their tracking on Smartphones, as well as their traditional phone number to call 1-877-Hi-NORAD (1-877-446-6723).

To visit their website and track Santa on his journey, check out http://www.noradsanta.org/

Have a Merry Christmas!