provide a relative motion between a distress beacon and a GEOSAR satellite, there is no opportunity to use the Doppler effect to calculate the location of a beacon. Therefore, the GEOSAR satellites only can relay a beacon's distress message. If the beacon is a model with a feature to report its location (e.g., from an on-board GPS receiver) then that location is relayed to SAR authorities. While the inability to independently locate a beacon is a drawback of GEOSAR satellites, those satellites have an advantage in that the present constellation well covers the entire Earth in real time, except for the polar regions. MEOSAR The most recent space segment augmentation for Cospas-Sarsat is MEOSAR. MEOSAR blends the advantages of the LEOSAR and GEOSAR systems, while avoiding the drawbacks. Over time there will be more than 70 MEOSAR satellites, and the MEOSAR system will become the dominant space-segment capability of Cospas-Sarsat. In addition to the large number of satellites, the MEOSAR system benefits from relatively large satellite footprints and sufficient satellite motion relative to a point on the ground to allow the use of Doppler measurements as part of the method of calculating a distress beacon's location. MEOSAR consists of SARR transponders aboard the following navigation-satellite constellations: the European Union's Galileo, Russia's Glonass, and the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS). In November 2022, China became the newest MEOSAR space-segment provider, with Cospas-Sarsat SAR payloads aboard six of its BeiDou (BDS) navigation spacecraft. The first SAR-equipped BDS spacecraft was launched on 19 September 2018, and the last on 23 November 2019. Operational distribution of MEOSAR alert data began at 1300 UTC on 13 December 2016. This operational phase of MEOSAR is known as the early operational capability (EOC), and is being carried out with continued testing and adjustment in preparation for an initial operational capability (IOC) phase expected to be declared early in 2023. The MEOSAR system advances the ability to provide near-instantaneous detection, identification, and location-determination of 406-MHz beacons. Prior to the operational introduction of MEOSAR, MEOSAR data was successfully used to assist in determining the crash location of EgyptAir flight 804 in the Mediterranean Sea. The location of a distress beacon is calculated by the receiving LUT by analyzing the frequency-difference-of-arrival (related to Doppler-induced variations), and/or the time-difference-of-arrival of a beacon's radio signal due to the differences in distance between the beacon and each MEOSAR satellite that may be