 It's not unusual for the weather to be fine, seas relatively calm, and the skipper and experienced sailor when the voyage begins. Or maybe the winds are still and the plane is running great when the pilot, who's been flying for years, heads down the runway. Still, what seems like a routine trip can become a nightmare. Whether it's a small plane down in a remote area or a mishap at sea, time can be the survivor's greatest enemy. The quicker they're found, the greater their chances for survival. Until recently, search and rescue teams often had little to go on in trying to find these people. Most likely just a report that a boat or plane never reached its intended destination. But today's search and rescue forces are getting the information they need from a new source, space. Thanks to a unique international cooperative effort originally spearheaded by NASA involving the United States, Canada, France and the Soviet Union as prime partners, there are now satellites orbiting the Earth with search and rescue equipment aboard them. The program is called Cospice-Sarsat. The name is complicated, save lives. A key link in this rescue chain is the emergency radio beacons carried aboard ships and planes. The maritime device is called an emergency position indicating radio beacon. Its counterpart on aircraft has a slightly different name but performs the same function. It's called an emergency locator transmitter. When activated, these beacons transmit a continuous, distinctive signal that can be picked up by a search and rescue satellite passing overhead. The satellite in turn relays this signal to a local user terminal like this one at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. And it looks like there could be the start of a signal right here at this point. Okay, yeah, we got a good signal. We're a good take. By analyzing these signals, the sight of an accident can usually be pinpointed within a 10 to 15 mile radius. This information is then sent via a computer-to-computer link-up to a mission control center and then on to a rescue control center near where the accident occurred. Inland aircraft incidents are handled by the Air Force. Here trained personnel correlate any information they've received from other sources with emergency transmitter reports. They then alert the necessary search and rescue teams. Boston Aeronautics, this is Scott RCC. We've got an all-night on a Cessna 172 in the northern Cascades and a Saucet hit in the same area. We request that the search mission be open with the Washington Civil Air Patrol. We're at our racing center. We request CELO support for ERT search and coordinates 47, 15, 1, 120, 42, west. If someone's in trouble offshore, Coast Guard, Air and Sea teams go to work. Roger, we'll get the helicopter and the C-130 in the air immediately. Jack Boyd, a stockbroker and Vietnam veteran, volunteered to sail his ultra-light racing boat, Wings, from Miami to New York to dramatize a fundraising effort by the New York Vietnam Veterans Commission. I hope to make it in about five days if all goes well. But you never can tell, Wings and the ties. Boyd's words were prophetic. He was caught in a severe storm. After battling tremendous breaking seas for nearly three days, Boyd finally activated his emergency radio beacon. I didn't know if anyone was hearing it. I hoped that the satellite and I hope that someone was listening to it. I was really virtually powerless to rig the boat or do anything because the waves were still crashing across it. A Soviet satellite picked up Mr. Boyd's signal and the point arena eventually told him safely to show him. And how does Jack Boyd feel now about having an emergency beacon on board? It's like the American Express had. Don't leave shore without one.