News/Features

NORAD ready to track Santa’s flight for the 66th Year

North American Aerospace Defense Command

PETERSON SPACE FORCE BASE, Co-

lo.—The North American Aerospace Defense Command is celebrating the 66th Anniversary of tracking Santa’s yuletide journey around the globe! The NORAD Tracks Santa website, www.noradsanta.org, launching December 1, features Santa’s North Pole Village, which includes a holiday countdown, games, movie theater, holiday music, webstore, and more. The website is available in eight languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Chinese.

The official NORAD Tracks Santa app is also in the Apple App and Google Play stores, so parents and children can count down the days until Santa’s launch on their smart phones and tablets. Tracking opportunities are also offered through social media on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, as well as on partner

See SANTA, Page 10

Photo by Thomas Paul

NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, Dec., 23, 2020. 2021 marks the 66th anniversary of the NORAD Christmas tradition.

Air Force announces Spark Tank 2022 semifinalists

by Crystal V. Ortiz

ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS)—A panel of nearly 30 subject matter experts from across the Department of the Air Force met Nov. 16 at the Basic Research Innovation and Collaboration Center in Arlington and via a virtual teleconferencing platform to conduct the Spark Tank 2022 quarterfinals.

“Spark Tank is the department’s take on the television show “Shark Tank” and is designed to recognize the great work our Airmen and Guardians put into overcoming performance obstacles and making our services more capable,” said William Gautier, Spark Tank director. “The goal of the quarterfinals round was to narrow the 184 ideas submitted for ST22 down to the top 15 ideas that will advance to the semifinals,” he said.

Only the top 8% percent of ideas were selected to compete in the semifinals scheduled for Jan. 6, 2022.

On the final day of the quarterfinal round, the panel evaluated 29 ideas nominated by U.S. Air Force major commands and U.S. Space Force field commands, plus four at-large “wildcard” submissions. The wildcards

AFWERX courtesy graphic

A panel of nearly 30 subject matter experts from across the Department of the Air Force met Nov. 16, at the Basic Research Innovation and Collaboration Center in Arlington, Va. and via a virtual teleconferencing platform to conduct the Spark Tank 2022 quarterfinals. Only the top 8 percent of ideas were selected to compete in the semifinals scheduled for Jan. 6, 2022.