Rescue after shipwreck

On more than one occasion, Odysseus survives shipwreck on his journey home. In one instance, he is separated from his crew before washing up on Calypso’s island. Later, his raft is destroyed on the final stretch of his journey home, and he winds up on the shores of Phaeacia (or of Ithaca, depending on whether you are reading the poem or watching the movie).

If Odysseus had an emergency beacon, rather than being left to the mercy of the seas (and Poseidon), he could have tapped into Galileo’s Search and Rescue Service. As a part of an international rescue effort called COSPAS-SARSAT, Galileo’s search and rescue antennas pick-up distress signals from emergency beacons and relay them to rescue teams. With the support of a network of ground stations throughout Europe, these signals are passed to local search and rescue teams.