ESAIL captures 2 million messages from ships at sea

The ESAIL microsatellite for making the seas safer has picked up more than two million messages from 70 000 ships in a single day.

The reliable high-performance satellite was developed as an ESA Partnership Project to help European and Canadian space companies succeed in the competitive global telecommunications market.

It enables industry, maritime authorities and governments to monitor fisheries, manage fleets, protect the environment and enhance security, making the seas safer.

ESAIL tracks ships worldwide by detecting messages that ships radio-broadcast with their automatic identification systems, enabling them to be identified even when far out to sea, at long distances from coastal-based monitoring stations.