[SatNews] Techno-Sciences, Inc. (TSi) has successfully installed the second COSPAS-SARSAT Medium Earth Orbit Search and Rescue (MEOSAR) satellite Ground Station for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. government agency responsible for the U.S. SARSAT program.
The six NOAA MEOLut antennas located in Miami, Florida.
After TSi’s successful implementation of the world’s first operationally ready six-channel MEOSAR Local User Terminal (MEOLUT) in Hawaii in September 2011, the latest MEOLUT installation at the U.S. Coast Guard (U.S.CG) COMSTATION facility in Miami, Florida, marked an important milestone for TSi and the U.S. SARSAT Program.
The U.S. SARSAT Program is a key participant of the international COSPAS-SARSAT Program which has helped to save more than 35,000 lives since its inception in 1982. Managed by NOAA, the U.S. SARSAT Program is a joint program with NASA, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Coast Guard.
“TSi should take great pride in their achievement of developing and building the first two operationally ready, six-antenna ground stations for the U.S. SARSAT program,” said Mickey Fitzmaurice, NOAA SARSAT Program’s Lead Satellite Systems Engineer recognizing this achievement after completion of the site acceptance testing. “With the international COSPAS-SARSAT program evolving towards using GPS, Galileo, and GLONASS satellites for worldwide distress alert detection, TSi’s engineering expertise combined with their leadership in MEOSAR technology has been instrumental in this MEOLUT deployment. The project schedule was met at every milestone, and the performance has been exceptional. We look forward to our continued partnership with TSi as we roll out MEOSAR operations.”
“TSi is pleased to deliver another critical piece of the next-generation MEOSAR system,” said Jean-Luc Abaziou, CEO of TSi. “I am proud of the TSi SARSAT team led by Jeff Khorrami for this latest achievement. As we have done since the early stages of COSPAS-SARSAT, we will continue to be an industry innovator while leading the transition to new MEOSAR technology. By integrating technological innovations into our MEOLUT ground station product, we will improve the accuracy of critical positioning data and the timeliness of its delivery to rescue personnel resulting in faster response times and even more lives saved.”
A TSi MEOLUT antenna radome.
The latest MEOLUT system, which successfully passed extensive site acceptance testing and has met and, in most cases, exceeded all NOAA requirements, will help to extend SAR coverage to parts of North America, South America, the Atlantic Ocean and portions of Europe and Africa. Working both independently and collaboratively through MEOLUT-MEOLUT networking, the Hawaii MEOLUT and the Miami MEOLUT provide coverage for the entire U.S. Search and Rescue Region.
Both MEOLUTs are ready to transition to operational use.
Designed to operate with a variety of satellites including the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite, the Russian Federation Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) and the European Union’s Galileo satellites, the TSi MEOLUTs are capable of providing highly accurate beacon locations using only a “single burst” received through four or more satellites.
Signals from 406MHz distress beacons relayed by SARSAT transponders in select versions of these satellites are collected from the satellite downlinks by the TSi MEOLUTs and used to compute locations of the beacons.
“We congratulate TSi on this major achievement which validates their leadership position in guiding the evolution to MEOSAR-based SAR solutions,” said Jean-Yves Courtois, CEO of Orolia, which announced its intention to acquire TSi in December of 2013. “TSi is part of McMurdo Group’s strategy (a division of Orolia) to provide the entire COSPAS-SARSAT community with innovative MEOSAR solutions that seamlessly integrate safety preparedness products, satellite communications systems and emergency response technologies into comprehensive solutions that will shape the future of the entire SAR industry.”
To learn more about TSi, head over to http://www.technosci.com/