27-05-2016, 11:29 AM
This website has been created in an attempt to preserve some of the history of the old NASA spacecraft ground tracking network and other programs that personnel of the former Bendix Field Engineering Corporation (BFEC) were involved with and as a central point for matters of interest to these employees. A Web Scrapbook.
The below "thumbnail" history is just that and a more detailed version is available under the "HISTORY" button on the left column of this page.
BFEC ceased to exist in name in 1992 and assumed the identity of another major aerospace company (AlliedSignal).
The Bendix Corporation was acquired by the Allied Corporation in 1982 and shortly thereafter Allied merged with the Signal Corporation becoming AlliedSignal Inc. However, Bendix Field Engineering Corporation's name did not change until 1992 whereupon it became AlliedSignal Technical Services Corporation (ATSC) and then in 1999 AlliedSignal merged with Honeywell and thus becoming Honeywell International and with the old BFEC/ATSC becoming Honeywell Technology Solutions Inc. (HTSI).
The company was originally a part of Bendix Radio and was formed in 1950 to provide support for a U.S. Air Force radar system and other Air Force equipment. Later, with the advent of the space age, the company became an integral part of the "Space Race" by providing support starting with the MINITRACK program and soon after with Project Mercury and then on to the Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab missions with the Manned Space Flight Network (MSFN), the Satellite Tracking and Data Acquisition Network (STADAN) which supported many of the unmanned scientific satellite programs, and the Deep Space Network (DSN). The MSFN & STADAN programs were combined in the early 70's and became the Spaceflight Tracking Data Network (STDN). The last Apollo mission occurred shortly after this with the Apollo/Soyuz Test Project in 1975.