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I had to look this up. Wow! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Cospas-Sarsat_Programme https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Cospas-Sarsat_.

I had to look this up. Wow! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Cospas-Sarsat_Programme https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Cospas-Sarsat_... > The International Cospas-Sarsat Programme is a satellite-aided search and rescue (SAR) initiative. It is organized as a treaty-based, nonprofit, intergovernmental, humanitarian cooperative of 45 nations and agencies (see infobox). It is dedicated to detecting and locating emergency locator radio beacons activated by persons, aircraft or vessels in distress, and forwarding this alert information to authorities that can take action for rescue. Member countries operate a constellation of around 66 satellites orbiting the Earth which carry radio receivers capable of locating an emergency beacon anywhere on Earth transmitting on the Cospas-Sarsat frequency of 406 MHz.

tialaramex 3y ago
It turns out that humans are all mutually interested in the general idea that we should rescue lost people. The reason for the name (half Russian, half English) is that this is an early peaceful purpose programme negotiated between the US and Russia. For a long time the only obvious reason to put things in space was so that you could kill the enemy, but COSPAS SARSAT is a system which needs space and doesn't kill anybody.