The Mercury Space Flight Network (MSFN) was completed with 18 ground tracking stations and two ships in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans to close gaps between ground stations. Project Mercury was initiated in 1958 as the first manned spaceflight program. A tracking network was needed to be built separate from the Satellite Tracking and Data Acquisition Network (STADAN) to accommodate instantaneous tracking needs for human spaceflight. Computers were installed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Bermuda in order to handle the overwhelming amount of data coming from the real-time telemetry of the spacecraft. Multiple redundancies in the UHF, C- and S-band frequencies were built into the MSFN.
› To See the Unseen, A History of Planetary Radar Astronomy› Histories of the Space Tracking and Data Acquisition Network (STADAN), the Manned Space Flight Network (MSFN), and the NASA Communications Network (NASCOM) (PDF)› SCaN History of the 1960’s