CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Water's Edge Park looked a bit like NASA flight control today.
And right now it's command central for a drone research project.
NASA and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi are gearing up for a big drone test event in uptown and along the Bayfront next month.
We're one of only two cities in the country to host these test flights.
And today was one of several rehearsals to iron out the kinks.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi has been stationed here at Water's Edge Park, doing some practice runs of those drone flights in different parts of the Sea District and the Bayfront.
Those drones are being monitored from a command center so staff can keep an eye on their performance and the airspace around them.
The goal of all of this research is to figure out how to safely integrate drones into airspace in urban areas like ours.
"Much like the air traffic control has a traffic management system for life flight, this is going to be the future traffic management for unmanned flight,” said Michael Sanders, acting executive director of the Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence.
Rehearsals have wrapped up for the weekend.
They'll pick back up again next week, running Monday through Wednesday.
Because of that testing, Cole Park will be closed Monday from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.
The major drone test event is scheduled for Aug. 12-16.
