Learn more about how Cospas-Sarsat beacons can help keep fishermen safe at sea and assist Search and Rescue teams.
Read more here:
http://www.worldfishing.net/news101/products/safety-and-distress/keeping-safe-at-sea
Author: kevin
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Daniel Lévesque, Former Cospas-Sarsat Secretariat Head, Announced as MSUA 2014 Pioneer Award Winner
The Mobile Satellite Users Association (MSUA) on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 announced that its 2014 Pioneer Award would be given to Mr. Daniel Lévesque, former head of the Cospas-Sarsat Secretariat, for his lasting contributions in key leadership roles in the Cospas-Sarsat Program.
MSUA President Tim Farrar noted: “We are honored to recognize Mr. Daniel Lévesque as recipient of this year’s Pioneer Award. Mr. Lévesque not only served as the chief executive of Cospas-Sarsat for nearly a quarter of a century, but his outstanding leadership and technical skills have guided the program from its early days of depending only on analogue beacons operating through low earth orbiting satellites to the present. Cospas-Sarsat is credited with being the vital alert and location-determination link for helping to rescue more than 35,000 persons over more than three decades.”
The award will be presented at a luncheon on Tuesday, 11 March 2014, during the MSUA-11 Conference that is being held in conjunction with the SATELLITE 2014 Conference and Exhibition, in Washington, DC.
Read more about MSUA here:
http://www.msua.org/ -
Cospas-Sarsat assisted as only alerting medium in rescue mobilised by activated black-market EPIRB
Unable to raise search parties from either Somalia or Djibouti, the UKMCC urged the UK Maritime Trade Organization to step in and search for a UK-coded EPIRB off their coast. Anti-piracy forces in the area were mobilised, including a Japanese maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) that saw only the flashing beacon, followed by a Spanish helicopter launched from a frigate, which found 8 people in the water, their vessel having been sunk without a trace.
The survivors were Yemeni nationals and had been the crew of a dhow which had sunk. All the crew were recovered. It is believed that the beacon was on a UK registered ship which was scrapped several years ago and the EPIRB had been sold on the black market. However the beacon happened to be on that vessel it was fortunate that the UKMCC operator pushed for a search. Without his diligence these men would surely have died. This alert also showed the multi-national cooperation that is often required during distress alerts and SAR.
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Languages of the Programme
Languages of the Programme
The International Cospas-Sarsat Programme Agreement (ICSPA) stipulates that the languages of the Council are English, French and Russian.
Simultaneous translation to and from the three languages of the Programme is provided at Council meetings.
Meetings of subsidiary organs will normally be held in the English language only, with no interpretation.
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INTERNATIONAL COSPAS SARSAT Terms of Service (“Agreement”)
This Agreement was last modified on February 24, 2014.
Please read these Terms of Service (“Agreement”, “Terms of Service”) carefully before using http://www.cospas-sarsat.int (“the Site”) operated by INTERNATIONAL COSPAS SARSAT (“us”, “we”, or “our”). This Agreement sets forth the legally binding terms and conditions for your use of the Site at http://www.cospas-sarsat.int.
By accessing or using the Site in any manner, including, but not limited to, visiting or browsing the Site or contributing content or other materials to the Site, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. Capitalized terms are defined in this Agreement.
Intellectual Property
The Site and its original content, features and functionality are owned by INTERNATIONAL COSPAS SARSAT and are protected by international copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret and other intellectual property or proprietary rights laws.Termination
We may terminate your access to the Site, without cause or notice, which may result in the forfeiture and destruction of all information associated with you. All provisions of this Agreement that by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity, and limitations of liability.Links To Other Sites
Our Site may contain links to third-party sites that are not owned or controlled by INTERNATIONAL COSPAS SARSAT.INTERNATIONAL COSPAS SARSAT has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party sites or services. We strongly advise you to read the terms and conditions and privacy policy of any third-party site that you visit.
Governing Law
This Agreement (and any further rules, polices, or guidelines incorporated by reference) shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of Quebec, Canada, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law.Changes To This Agreement
We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms of Service by posting the updated terms on the Site. Your continued use of the Site after any such changes constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms of Service.Please review this Agreement periodically for changes. If you do not agree to any of this Agreement or any changes to this Agreement, do not use, access or continue to access the Site or discontinue any use of the Site immediately.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Agreement, please contact us. -
Observers at Cospas-Sarsat Meetings
Subject to a specific Cospas-Sarsat Council decision, administrations or agencies of States that have not completed the notification of their association with the Cospas-Sarsat Programme may be invited to attend Cospas-Sarsat meetings as observers.
Normally, observer status at a particular meeting will be granted to an agency or administration only if that agency or administration has formally stated a firm intention to implement the association procedure in the near future, or when confirmation has been provided to the Cospas-Sarsat Council that the formal notification procedure was in progress. Invitations may be issued on the Council’s instruction only.
The Cospas-Sarsat Council may also decide to invite national or international organisations as observers to specific Cospas-Sarsat meetings, where their competencies and expertise might assist the discussion of technical or operational matters.
Further information is available in documents C/S P.007, and C/S P.011, which can be accessed on the Professionals website (Pro/Documents/System Documents).
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Satellite Constellation Configuration
The Cospas-Sarsat satellite constellation is composed of search and rescue satellites in low Earth orbit (LEOSAR) and geostationary orbit (GEOSAR).
LEOSAR Satellite Constellation
The present system configuration includes six LEOSAR satellites placed in sun-synchronous, near-polar orbits at about 850 km altitude, and equipped with SAR instrumentation at 406 MHz supplied by Canada, France, the USA and EUMETSAT.Each satellite makes a complete orbit of the Earth around the poles in about 100 minutes, traveling at a velocity of 7 km per second. The satellite views a “swath” of the Earth of approximately 6000 km wide as it circles the globe, giving an instantaneous “field of view” about the size of a continent. When viewed from the Earth, the satellite crosses the sky in about 15 minutes, depending on the maximum elevation angle of the particular pass.
GEOSAR Satellite Constellation
The GEOSAR constellation is comprised of satellites provided by the USA (GOES series), India (INSAT series), EUMETSAT (MSG series), and Russia (Electro-L and Louch series).
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System Templates
A new template has been made available to provide a MCC/SPOC Model Agreement to address the distribution and reception of Cospas-Sarsat distress alert data between Cospas-Sarsat Mission Control Centres and their supported search and rescue points of contact. MCC/SPOC Model Agreement
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System Monitoring Templates
Ground Segment Change Reporting
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 1 APRIL 2026
At CSC-73, the Council decided to approve the list of new changes to ground segment equipment (GSE) and associated implementation dates agreed at JC-39, as shown at Annex 26 to the JC-39 Report, as amended at CSC-73/OPN/SR/Annex 10. The Council invited Ground Segment Providers to report their status of implementation of approved changes to GSE using the survey tool provided by the Secretariat, with a submission deadline of 1 April 2026, to enable consideration at JC-40.
Please note that some of these surveys contain questions for over 200 action items – there is no facility to save and resume your work, please be prepared to complete it entirely before proceeding. A PDF version of this list (for reference purposes only) can be found here: https://www.cospas-sarsat.int/images/cospas_sarsat/pdf_uploads/2025-06-GSE_changes_complete_list_approved_at_CSC-73.pdf
Survey links:
SPOC Comm Tests and Interference Reports
Click on the name to download the zipped file below. Please remember to extract the databases in order to use them.
MCC-SPOC Communication Test (MS Windows and Access 2003 or higher – 32bit)
MCC-SPOC Communication Test (MS Windows and Access 2016 or higher – 64bit)
Monthly Interference Report (MS Excel)
Problems uploading? Please contact mail@cospas-sarsat.int
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Meeting Templates
Meeting Calendar
Click here to view or download the current calendar of meetings and paper submission deadlines
See section 2.4.4 of System document C/S P.011 for more information on deadlines for submissions.
Document Templates
see the respective meeting webpages (Meetings / List of Meetings)
Submissions
Video instructions on How to format a document
Video instructions on How to submit a document
Use the upload tool to Submit a documentPlease prepare and submit the MS Word version of input documents using the templates available at the respective meeting webpages and upload them to the Secretariat using the Meetings/Submit Meeting Documents tool. The instructions for tracking your changes on corrigenda and revisions are here. Other documents for reference only may also be uploaded there in PDF format or other file types of up to 8 MB in size. If you encounter any difficulties, please e-mail <conference @ cospas-sarsat.int>.
