The next, the 2nd instrument type Sarsat-3, will be launched with the satellite NOAA-N ‘on 4 February. On 1 February 2009, treatment with Cospas-Sarsat old beacons ends at 121.5 MHz. A stop prepared since 2000:
“These tags do not analog identity information and generate many false alarms,” says Michel Margery.  406 MHz distress beacons. Credits: SD Marine. Limits that do not have the digital 406 MHz beacons: they send a signal to the rapid identification of its owner through registration in a database, and give a location within 5 km.

Cospas-Sarsat currently 5 satellites in LEO and 5 in geostationary orbit. The future? Payloads aboard satellites in medium altitude orbits of satellite navigation system Galileo, GPS and GLONASS.