GlobalSat for DRR to be named after Abdul Kalam

“GlobalSat for DRR”, a global satellite for earth observation and disaster risk reduction, will be named after Indian Missile Man APJ Abdul Kalam as a tribute to the vision of the celebrated rocket scientist who died July 27.

• The concept was initiated by (CANada-EUrope-US-Asia)CANEUS in cooperation with UN agencies including the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank.
• Milind Pimprikar, Chairman of CANEUS, said that goals of UN GlobatSat are the same as those of Kalam. In his ‘World Space Vision-2050’ Mr. Kalam had envisaged space faring nations joining hands to find solutions to mankind’s major problems such as natural disasters, energy and water scarcity, health-care education issues and weather prediction.
• The UN-led GlobalSat will provide a common platform that will allow sharing of space and data segments, with an ability to serve individual nation’s disaster management and development needs.
• UN GlobalSat initiative as a tribute to Late Dr. Abdul Kalam will be renamed it as “UN Kalam GlobalSat”.
• The GlobalSat was proposed in response to the need for a globally interconnected disaster and environmental management system since no single country can afford to develop a complete set of sensors and satellite systems needed for forecasting, monitoring and mitigating disasters like floods, drought, typhoons, earthquakes, wild fires, windstorms, or tidal events.