COSPAS / SARSAT Program

Below is a checklist of COSPAS / SARSAT program postal items (stamps, souvenir sheets, aerogrammes, postal cards, etc.). Catalog numbers, years of issue, and notes on the items featured are given when available. If readers know of additional information or images, please contact the authors using the e-mail addresses at the bottom of this page.

The COSPAS/SARSAT Program:

• SARSAT = Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking
• COSPAS = COsmicheskaya Sistyema Poiska Avariynich Sudov (Space System for the Search of Vessels in Distress)

The SARSAT satellite system is operated by Canada, USA, and France, while the COSPAS system is operated by Russia. Thirty-two other nations also participate in the program. The two satellite systems work together, receiving signals from emergency radio beacons and relaying them to ground stations which process the signals and calculate the locations of the beacons. This allows search and rescue authorities to send rescue missions to those locations.

The necessary COSPAS/SARSAT receivers have been placed aboard various satellites:

1. U.S. ATN (NOAA) weather satellites (beginning with NOAA-8 launched in March 1983),
2. Several different geostationary weather satellites (beginning with GOES-7 launched in 1987), and
3. Russian Nadezhda navigation satellites (beginning with Kosmos-1383 launched in June 1982).

Worldwide, over 20,000 persons have been rescued by the COSPAS/SARSAT system since 1982. Unlike the Argos Data Collection and Location System intended for environmental data and limited other use, SARSAT is designed specifically for the rescue of persons in distress. However, many of the system characteristics are similar, such as global coverage provided by the use of the same polar-orbiting weather satellites to collect and transfer the data to ground stations.

Reference: http://www.sarsat.noaa.gov/

^*Scott catalog number, unless prefixed with Mi or BL for Michel.
^**FDC = first day cover; SS# = souvenir sheet, MS# = miniature sheet, where # = number of stamps in sheet, and the numbers in parentheses are the catalog numbers of the stamps in the sheet.

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