Inside The Local Operation That Tracks Santa's Christmas Eve Flight For 20 Million Kids
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EXTON, Pa. (CBS) -- It's about time for Santa to hop on his sleigh and make the rounds. Thanks to technology, we're able to keep tabs on Saint Nick's progress.
Every year, millions of children around the world are able to track Santa's whereabouts as he makes his way from the North Pole into their homes. Eyewitness News takes you inside the local operation that helps to bring that magical trip to life.
Inside a nondescript building in Exton, there lies a magical place that comes alive every Christmas.
"We are in our space operations center for the NORAD Tracks Santa program," software developer Hannah Pinkos said.
Pinkos is one of many who will be helping to track Santa's every move on Christmas Eve.
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"We're making our last minute preparations and making sure that Santa is getting ready for his trip, making sure his safety is fine for his trip once he makes his departure from the North Pole," Pinkos said.
The tracker Uses satellite technology linked to NORAD -- or the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
"The same way NORAD tracks different aircraft or potential threats to the U.S. and we get that data here," Pinkos said.
Santa tracking team members can follow him as he makes his trip around the globe. The site uses 3-D images from Santa's trip, as children around the world logged on to the NORAD Tracks Santa website, to check out how close he was to delivering their gifts.
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"As soon as each time zone crosses into Christmas Eve day they get access to the website," one Santa tracker said. "The first year we did this, we had no idea how many people would visit that website."
Last year, there were as many as 20 million visitors to the site.
"NORAD has Santa cams in strategic locations so we can get actual video of Santa traveling around," Pinkos said.
NORAD is making sure no child misses out on watching Santa deliver a little Christmas magic this year.
