Beginning in the year 2000, the Miradyne Division of Dynamic Systems Integration began working with NASA and NCAM (National Consortium for Aviation Mobility) on the NASA SATS (Small Aircraft Transportation System) Initiative. This 5-year program was aimed at the development of tool sand technologies which would give more time to more people, satisfying a large portion of the emerging public demand for safe, higher-speed mobility and increased accessibility, while unleashing the full potential of the knowledge-based industrial expansion to more suburban, rural and remote communities. The benefits include improved standards of living and quality of life for all in the new global economy.

It is hoped that SATS technology innovations will provide the nation with

1. economic development for communities of all sizes enabled by localized air accessibility,
2. choices to bypass highway and hub-and-spoke transportation systems delays,
3. an efficient means for intermodal connectivity between small airports and the global aviation system, and
4. an exportable transportation revolution with affordable "instant infrastructure" for developing nations around the world.

Miradyne's participation in the SATS Initiative included several projects, working in partnership with the Virginia, Maryland, and Michigan SATS Labs. Most significant among these were the Connected Cockpit, also known as AAWS (Assured Aviation Web Services), which uses emerging satellite Internet connectivity to connect small aircraft pilots to the time-sensitive information they need, and the TerraViewer project, Microsoft Direct3D situational awareness software which employs U.S. Geological Survey terrain and land cover data, combined with FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) Airport information data, and displays a 3-dimensional view of the space in which a small aircraft is flying.

It is hosted on a laptop computer, which can be carried onboard by the pilot, and obtains location information from an onboard GPS (Global Positioning System) device, as well as aircraft instrumentation. It was built on the Microsoft .Net platform, and used the Microsoft Windows Longhorn (now Vista) operating system.