Thales has been selected by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to develop and build an operational ground station at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, to track Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) satellites operating in medium Earth orbit (MEO), the company announced on 15 October.
The ground station will receive and process 406MHz distress beacon signals from the MEO satellites and relay them to the US Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking (SARSAT) programme’s Mission Control Center (USMCC), via US government communication links, for validation and distribution to rescue authorities. This ground station will be designated the NOAA Southwest USA Medium-Earth Orbit Local User Terminal (MEOLUT)and will be an integral part of the MEO-based ground system operated by the USMCC.
The station will work in conjunction with operational MEOLUTs in Honolulu and Miami on a 24/7 basis.
The MEO system, which provides distress alert and location data for SAR authorities in near real-time, uses spacecraft and ground facilities to detect and locate signals from the 406MHz distress beacons.
Philippe Blatt, VP, navigation France at Thales Alenia Space, said: ‘We are confident that our solution will meet and exceed NOAA SARSAT’s expectations, and provide decisive help to the UASA region. Today, MEOLUT Next is the only solution in the world capable of processing second-generation beacons in real time.’
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