Sailors, fishermen, mountaineers, pilots, and other travelers and explorers rely on personal locator beacons to help rescuers locate them when in distress. More than 40,000 people have been saved by international search and rescue operations since the NASA-developed system went online in 1982.
Following a tragic airplane crash that killed two members of Congress in 1972, the U.S. government directed NASA to develop a space-based distress alert system with the aim of providing near-global coverage. NASA has spearheaded this international effort and has, over several decades, continued to make significant improvements to it — helping to save tens of thousands of lives in the process.
Learn more about how NASA helped develop technology that impacts search and rescue at sea within your city's coastal environment!