Skip to main content
Heavenly Help to the Rescue with Major Ted King (ret.)

Video: Heavenly Help to the Rescue with Major Ted King (ret.)

Submitted by rasc@johnginder.com on 25 September 2019

Major Ted King (ret.), a pioneer and operations expert in COSPAS-SARSAT, presented the history and development of this program and the key role Canada played in its evolution.

COSPAS-SARSAT is an emergency alert satellite system for search and rescue (SAR) that started out with a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 1979 between Canada, France, the United States and the former USSR. It grew into an international organization that now has 45 countries and organizations participating in its operation and management. Since its inception it has saved over 46,000 lives. In 2014 it was inducted into the Space Foundation's Space Technology Hall of Fame. Major King is the former head of the Mission Control Centre in Canada and later scientist/planner for NOAA's SARSAT program at its Mission Control Center in Suitland, MD (a suburb of Washington, DC). He spoke at the RASC, Toronto Centre's Speaker's Night, which was held at the Ontario Science Centre on September 25, 2019.