ON DANCER....

A little help from our friends: NASA has enlisted Santa's help to test out its new  NASA-Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) on Christmas Eve.

The SLF -- which stands for Sleigh Landing Facility during the holidays -- will be dark and quiet, but it won't be empty, reports NASA. The NASA-KSC airspace is monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week by a Military Radar Unit (MRU) controller, says NASA. When Santa slips into Brevard County under cover of darkness, the radar controller will be following his every move from a brand-new, state-of-the-art traffic control tower, assures the agency.

"We've been in contact with Santa, although for security reasons I can't elaborate," said Ron Feile, lead air traffic controller with Space Gateway Services (SGS). "Santa knows about the control tower, and he's very pleased that he can help us give it a shakedown," he said.