At that time, the pilot of a passenger plane flying to
Portugal heard this faint voice of danger. He immediately sent a message to the
US Coast Guard Rescue Center in New York. From there, an officer named Robert
Goetz located the passenger plane and sought help from the Russian navigation
satellite Kosmos 1383 floating in the sky.
Ships at sea have a device called an emergency location
transmitter. Kosmos 1383 keeps showing emergency distress signals coming from
the nucleus. It automatically sends them to ground stations in the northern
hemisphere. Computers at the ground stations calculate the Doppler shift in the
signals and the satellite’s location to accurately determine the ships’
locations.
Help from the sky
Goetz contacted Scott Air Force Base’s flight control centre
by telephone. On the evening of the 9th, Kosmos 1383, flying 1,000 kilometres
above the Atlantic Ocean, received a distress call from a ship and sent it
to Scott Base. The computers there determined that the ship was about 100 miles
south of the passenger plane.
At 7 a.m. on the 10th, rescue planes and Coast Guard units
arrived and rescued the three people on the Konso. This was the first time in
history that a satellite had successfully helped locate a ship in distress and
rescue the crew. Russia and Western countries have cooperated to deploy
satellites and ground stations worldwide to protect lives at sea and on land.
The first satellite of the project, Kosmos 1383, was launched by Russia. The
project is called Cospas-Sarsat. Ground stations have been established in the
United States, Canada, England, France, Norway, Russia, and India.
Many satellites have been launched into the sky for
surveillance. They travel day and night over the sea and land, constantly
monitoring the vehicles. The success of this program has amazed its creators.
From its launch in September 1982 to June 1985, the satellites have saved 437
people who were caught in accidents. This includes survivors of plane crashes
in difficult locations and people who were stranded on ships in the middle of
the ocean.
The accuracy of locating the accident sites is increasing day
by day. In most places, help can be reached within 8 hours of the accident. In
the 1980s, the Russian Ministry of Merchant Shipping also joined the
organization. It designed and launched two satellites that could receive 406 MHz and 121.5 MHz frequencies and send messages to ground stations. Kosmos
1383 was launched on June 30, 1982.
Today, many satellites are in orbit around the Earth, passing every point on the Earth every four hours. Ground stations are being installed in many parts of the world. In addition to saving lives, the Cospas-Sarsat program has significantly reduced the cost of search and rescue. People can travel at sea and on land with the confidence that a helping hand is waiting in the sky.
The development of cutting-edge technology has made it possible to protect humans from various critical situations. After the first rescue with the help of satellites, it is remarkable that people are being rescued quickly in today's era due to technological developments.
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