FAA to Deploy Aircraft-Tracking Satellite Systems in 2009

[Satellite Today 12-01-08] U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Acting Administrator Robert Sturgell has approved nationwide deployment of the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system, the FAA announced Dec. 1.
    The system allows air traffic controllers to track aircraft via satellite, rather than radar.
    The FAA said the system, which is designed to provide more efficient routings in bad weather while giving pilots a better way to gauge other aircraft in the skies, is safer than radar.
    The FAA plans to roll out the new systems beginning in 2009 and expects a “nationwide deployment of the system by 2013,” according to an administration statement.
    FAA’s recently commissioned ADS-B services in Florida, Alaska, Kentucky, the Gulf of Mexico and Philadelphia, Penn. are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2010. With their completion, controllers can start separating aircraft using ADS-B.