Jul 31 1985
From The Space Library
NASA announced that one of the satellites in the COSPAS/SARSAT system, an international program with the U.S., USSR, Canada, and France serving as major partners, made possible the rescue of a man 146 miles off Cape Henry, Virginia.
On April 17 Jack Boye departed Miami to sail to New York Harbor for the dedication of a memorial to Vietnam veterans of Airborne 173, his wartime squadron. Three days into the sail his radio went out, and a storm caused the sloop's electrical and electronic equipment and engine to fail and the boat to capsize. When the boat rolled over and started filling with water, Boye activated an emergency position-indicating radio beacon that trailed at the stern of the boat.
An orbiting Soviet sea and rescue satellite, one of three USSR and two U.S. satellites equipped with sea and rescue equipment in the COSPAS/SARSAT satellite system, first received the distress signal and beamed it to the Rescue and Command Center at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, who alerted rescue forces. After an electronic search for the distress signal, a Coast Guard aircraft located the sloop and requested assistance from a naval ship in the vicinity. The USS Detroit sent a whaleboat with the ship's doctor to the sloop.
To date, the COSPAS/SARSAT system had been instrumental in the rescue of more than 400 people. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration managed the U.S. portion of the system; Goddard Space Flight Center was responsible for system research and development. (NASA Release 85113)
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