Reconfigurable Radio Tracks Flights Worldwide

When Malaysia Air Flight 370 disappeared somewhere over the Indian Ocean in 2014, it had flown far beyond radar range. Under a new space-based air tracking system - starting with a reconfigurable radio developed by NASA - no plane would ever be off the grid that way.

NASA uses powerful radios to communicate with its satellites, rovers, and astronauts. These devices allow us to see everything from pictures of cryovolcanoes on Pluto to tweets from the International Space Station (ISS). In recent years, NASA decided it needed radios that work on higher frequencies with more bandwidth to make sending larger quantities of data back and forth faster, and that can be reprogrammed from a distance.