The mission of the international Cospas-Sarsat programme is to locate people in distress and alert emergency responders via a system of emergency locator beacons and satellites relaying distress signals to a global ground network.

Key figures

• 45 contributing nations and organizations
• 406-MHz distress beacon transmission frequency
• 32 mission centres
• > 60,000+ people saved around the world

Key milestones

• 2022: Declaration of ELT(DT) capability in response to ICAO requirements for tracking aircraft in distress
• 2019: Declaration of Return Link Service capability to acknowledge receipt of distress signals (via SAR Galileo contributing to the MEOSAR system)
• 2016: First operational MEOSAR data complementing LEOSAR and GEOSAR
• 1988: International Cospas-Sarsat Programme Agreement (ICSPA) signed by four founding nations: Canada, United States, France and Soviet Union
• 1982: French Mission Control Centre (FMCC) enters service at CNES in Toulouse. First lives saved thanks to Cospas-Sarsat in British Columbia
• 1982-1983: First Soviet instrument flown on Cosmos 1383 satellite (1982) and first French and Canadian instruments flown on U.S. NOAA-8 satellite (1983)
• 1979: Birth of the Cospas-Sarsat project with the signature of an MoU between the official organizations of Canada, the United States, France and the Soviet Union

Programme in brief

27 July 2019: a yacht leaves harbour at La Trinité-sur-Mer with four people aboard, planning to spend a few days at sea. The next day, a storm forms and is bearing down on Brittany and Charentes, with winds gusting to over 50 knots and an 8-metre swell.
Sailing 70 nautical miles off the French coast, the yacht is soon overwhelmed by the elements, dismasts and capsizes. The crew of four manages to board the life raft and activate their emergency locator beacon, the only way they have of calling for help.

The beacon emits on the 406-MHz frequency and its signal is received by satellites in the Cospas-Sarsat constellation in Earth orbit. Data from the beacon are then downlinked to one or more ground stations, which calculate its position and send alert information to their associated mission control centre (MCC). As MCCs around the globe are all interconnected, the information arrives at the French Mission Control Centre (FMCC) in Toulouse, responsible for handling this distress call. This whole process takes just seconds. The FMCC then forwards the information to the relevant search-and-rescue centre and teams are dispatched to pick up in this case the stricken pleasure boaters, and more generally anyone whose distress beacon has been activated.

Formed in 1979, Cospas-Sarsat is a global programme using radio beacons capable of locating any craft or person in distress, at sea, in the air or on land. Today, more than three million Cospas-Sarsat beacons are in operation around the world. They are mandatory aboard commercial airliners and merchant ships, as well as pleasure boats sailing 60 nautical miles or more from a safe haven.

Founded by France, Canada, the United States and Russia, the Cospas-Sarsat organization and eponymous programme have evolved considerably over the years and now count 45 member nations and organizations. Its mission is to collect, locate and forward distress signals from 406-MHz beacons relayed by a constellation of satellites and then a network of local user terminals (LUTs) and interconnected MCCs.

While this programme is renowned for its purpose, heritage and international reach, it also stands out for its vigour, as it has never seen more new developments than in recent years. The main evolution concerns the addition of systems based on constellations of satellites in low Earth orbit (LEOSAR) and geostationary orbit (GEOSAR), and the MEOSAR system using search-and-rescue payloads flying on Europe’s Galileo navigation satellites in medium Earth orbit (SAR Galileo), and on U.S., Russian GLONASS and Chinese BDS satellites. MEOSAR affords the ability to precisely locate activated distress beacons in near-real time instead of several minutes or even hours with the LEOSAR and GEOSAR systems alone—a great advantage for dispatching search-and-rescue teams in timely fashion to give distress callers the best chance of survival.

Since its inception, the Cospas-Sarsat has helped to save more than 60,000 people all over the globe. In 2023 in the FMCC’s service zone alone, 262 people were rescued during 110 SAR operations.

CNES’s role

CNES is the Cospas-Sarsat cooperating organization for France, designated by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, as is the representative who chairs the international organization when it’s France’s turn to take over the rotating presidency between the four founding nations. France is thus a key player in the Cospas-Sarsat programme since its inception, supported by CNES as one of its historic pillars.

The French Mission Control Centre (FMCC) is located at CNES’s Toulouse Space Centre, which is also in charge of maintaining it and implementing upgrades (through the national Cospas-Sarsat project at CNES). It is operated under the responsibility of DGAMPA, the French maritime, fisheries and aquaculture authority, and DGAC, the French civil aviation authority. The FMCC collects, processes, distributes and archives distress calls from within its coverage zone. It also coordinates operations by the six other MCCs (in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Norway, Turkey and the United Kingdom).

CNES also operates on behalf of the European Commission the SAR Galileo service from Toulouse, which contributes to Cospas-Sarsat’s MEOSAR system, notably operating and maintaining the EC’s four ground stations in Europe and Reunion Island (SAR Galileo project at CNES).

Contacts CNES

France’s representative on Cospas-Sarsat Council and Cospas-Sarsat Programme Manager at CNES.
Bruno Chazal
E-mail: bruno.chazal@cnes.fr

National Cospas-Sarsat Project Leader (CNES)
Laure Luno
E-mail: laure.luno@cnes.fr

SAR Galileo Project Leader (CNES)
Eric Jurado
E-mail: eric.jurado@cnes.fr

Search-and-Rescue senior expert (CNES)
Didier Delcuvellerie
E-mail: didier.delcuvellerie@cnes.fr

FMCC Chief (DGAMPA)
David Poudevigne
E-mail: david.poudevigne.external@cnes.fr

FMCC Deputy Chief (DGAC)
Arnaud Philippe
E-mail: arnaud.philippe.external@cnes.fr