Sep 11 1986
From The Space Library
COSPAS/SARSAT, an international search and rescue system, was scheduled to monitor the around-the-world, non-stop and unrefueled flight of the Rutan Voyager airplane. The SARSAT system uses four satellites, three from the Soviet Union and one from the United States, to locate downed aircraft and ships at sea by picking up their emergency signals. The Rutan Voyager aircraft, designed by aeronautical engineer Burt Rutan and piloted by his brother Dick and Jeana Yeager, carried a 1-1/2-pound prototype beacon that could transmit on a 406 Mhz frequency for location determination and a 121.5 Mhz frequency on which rescue workers could hone in. The signals could also be recorded by a satellite if the aircraft was not in immediate range of a ground station. Since the initiation of the program in September 1982, 606 lives had been saved, by September 1986, in 251 emergencies worldwide. (NASA Release 86-132)
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