International Cospas-Sarsat Programme

Treaty-based intergovernmental satellite search-and-rescue programme formally established in 1988 by Canada, France, the United States, and the former Soviet Union. Its satellite, ground-segment, and mission-control network detects and locates distress signals from emergency beacons used by aircraft, vessels, and people, distributes accurate alert and location data to search-and-rescue authorities worldwide, and is governed by a Council with a permanent Secretariat.