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Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly

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put all available resources behind the<br />

$80 million project in 1960, putting the<br />

final pieces in place just before<br />

December 1960, the originally scheduled<br />

date for the first suborbital mission. The<br />

Mercury tracking network in and of itself<br />

was a project whose scale and boldness<br />

rivaled that of the space missions it<br />

supported. The eighteen communications<br />

stations set up at measured intervals<br />

around the globe, including two set up on<br />

navy ships (one in the Atlantic Ocean,<br />

another in the Indian Ocean), used<br />

powerful satellite receivers to acquire<br />

the radio signal of the Mercury capsule<br />

as it passed overhead. Each station<br />

transmitted data on the craft’s position<br />

and speed back to Mercury control,<br />

which bounced the data to the Goddard<br />

computers. The “CO3E” software

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