RICHMOND—Governor Ralph Northam today announced that Aireon LLC, a provider of air traffic surveillance systems around the globe, will make a significant investment to expand its headquarters in Fairfax County. The project will increase the square footage of the company’s office space by nearly 150 percent, accommodating approximately 56 new jobs over the next three years.

The satellite-based air traffic surveillance system Aireon has unveiled a first-of-its-kind free service that can track the last known location of aircraft in distress.

Space-based surveillance provider Aireon has activated its Aircraft Location and Emergency Response Tracking (Alert) service to provide on request the last known position of any transponder-equipped aircraft in distress.

The aviation industry’s first-ever public global aircraft emergency locating service, Aireon ALERT, has begun live operations out of Ireland’s Ballygirreen communications base.