The Federal Aviation Administration has received a computer software system for air traffic management operations from NASA.
Air traffic controllers will work to manage the spacing between planes that approach airports by using the Terminal Sequencing and Spacing technology, NASA said Tuesday.
“With TSS, NASA’s aeronautics innovators have delivered to the FAA another valuable tool that will soon benefit our environment, our economy and every individual traveler,” said Jaiwon Shin, NASA’s associate administrator for aeronautics research.
Controllers can also use the tool to assign speeds to an aircraft as it passes through an airspace, the space agency says.
NASA incorporated the performance-based navigation procedures into the software in order to minimize course and altitude changes.
The system, which is part of a joint multi-agency and industry air traffic control system modernization program, is set to enter operations in 2018.
