ISRO Search and Rescue Network saves 30 lives

Bangalore, July 19 (UNI) Distress signals picked up by the Search and Rescue transponder onboard INSAT 3A had enabled Indian Space Research Organisation to save 30 crew members of a Panama registered ship, adrift in Sri Lankan waters after its communications and navigation systems were destroyed in a fire onbaord the ship.

ISRO, in a release here, said the ship 'Glory Moon' sent out the distress signals transmitted from a distress beacon on July 11. The Indian Mission Control Centre (INMCC) of ISRO for search and rescue operations, located here, detected the distress signals and immediately alerted the Indian Coast Guard for search and rescue operations.

Though the ship was in Sri Lankan waters, it was the initiative taken by INMCC that resulted in the rescue of all the 30 crew members, ISRO said.

India was a member of the international COSPAS-SARSAT programme for providing distress alert and position location service through LEOSAR (Low Earth Orbit Search And Rescue) satellite system. Under this programme, India had set up two Local User Terminals (LUTs), one in Lucknow and the other in Bangalore. Besides, ISRO's geostationary communication satellite, INSAT-3A, was specially equipped with a 406 MHz Search and Rescue payload that picked up and relayed alert signals originating from distress beacons of maritime, aviation and land users.

INSAT GEOSAR Local User Terminal here was integrated with INMCC.

Since its establishment in 1991, INMCC had helped in saving more than 1,500 lives.

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