COM DEV Selected to Design the Next Generation of Satellite Payload for Global Search and Rescue

March 4, 2013

 

COM DEV International Ltd. has won a contract to begin work on the development of an advanced satellite payload that will be used in the next generation of the global search and rescue system known as Cospas-Sarsat.

 

The Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada has awarded a contract to COM DEV initially worth CDN $4.7 million for the first phase of the Medium Earth Orbit Search and Rescue (MEOSAR) Project. COM DEV’s role is to design and develop a repeater that Canada plans to provide as a payload on the next generation of the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) constellation.

The work is expected to last 15 months and it will be carried out at the Company’s Cambridge and Ottawa facilities. The contract includes a $14 million option to extend the development work to produce a fully-integrated prototype MEOSAR repeater for test and space qualification.

“We are pleased to have won another major contract for search and rescue repeaters,” said Mike Pley, CEO of COM DEV International. “This project demonstrates Canada’s continued commitment to the global search and rescue system. It is also an excellent example of how Canadian space technology can be harnessed for the benefit of all humanity.”

COM DEV began the development of its MEOSAR technology in 2008 under a cost-shared R&D project with the Canadian Space Agency. Canada’s National Search and Rescue Secretariat then provided additional R&D support through its Search and Rescue New Initiatives Fund because it was recognised that MEOSAR payload technology would help to improve the capabilities of Canada’s national search and rescue system. This new GPS MEOSAR Project will benefit from these previous R&D investments by both COM DEV and the Canadian Government Cospas-Sarsat was established by Canada, the United States, France, and Russia in the mid-1970s to provide a true global search and rescue system. Once in orbit 22,000 kilometres above the Earth, a MEOSAR Repeater will be able to detect signals from emergency beacons and
retransmit the signals to receiver stations on Earth. The emergency messages can then be sent to appropriate authorities so that people in danger can be quickly located and rescued. Since becoming operational in 1982, the Cospas-Sarsat system has helped to save over 33,000 lives around the world. The MEOSAR system that will be implemented will provide faster and more accurate detection of emergency distress signals on a global basis leading to more lives being saved in the future.