WASHINGTON DC (RIA Novosti): Santa Claus has concluded his 66th annual trip around the world with a Merry Christmas and a gift to more than 7.6 billion children and adults around the world, according to the US – Canada Air Defense Forces (NORAD).
“Faster than the starlight, Santa is done! Thank you for being part of our 66 year holiday tradition!” – said in a post by NORAD on Twitter .
As noted on the NORAD website, this year Santa Claus delivered 7 623 693 263 gifts to the inhabitants of the planet and even visited the International Space Station .
Santa Claus took off from his residence at the North Pole at about 2 pm Moscow time in a sleigh pulled by nine reindeer. The length of the wizard’s sleigh is 75 sugar sticks or 150 candies, the width is 40 sticks or 80 candies. The height of the sleigh is also measured in candies, it is equivalent to 55 sugar sticks or 110 candies, the weight of the sleigh at takeoff is 75 thousand jelly candies. The maximum speed of the sleigh exceeds the speed of starlight.
Traditionally, nine reindeer carry sledges through the air; hay, carrots and oatmeal serve as “fuel” for them. Santa fed the reindeer before leaving.
The US and Canadian military monitors Santa’s movements. The Christmas journey can be tracked in real time at www.noradsanta.org and on the Command’s social media.
The NORAD Watching Santa project was launched in 1955 when a major department store in Colorado ran an advertisement urging children to call Santa Claus. However, an error crept into the phone number indicated in the announcement, and instead of Santa, the calls had to be answered by the hotline operator of the Continental Air Defense Command (the predecessor of NORAD).
Since then, every year on Christmas Eve, Color-ado Air Force Base has be-come the tracking center for Santa’s Christmas journey. To quickly track the r-oute of the New Year’s wizard, NORAD uses four co-ntrol systems – satellites, r-adars, fighter planes (in the skies over the US and Can-ada) and special “Santa ca-meras”, videos from which are available on YouTube. The reference point for the radars is the flickering, like a beacon, the red nose of the leader of the team – the reindeer Rudolph.
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