MISSION CONTROL CENTER STATUS REPORT # 2 STS-69 Friday, September 8, 1995, 7:00am CDT Astronauts Mike Gernhardt and Jim Newman aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour were scheduled to power up the 50-foot long Canadian-built robot arm this morning for the grapple and deployment of the SPARTAN solar science satellite by Gernhardt at 10:42 AM Central time. Endeavour will separate to a distance of about 40 nautical miles from SPARTAN, leaving the 2800 pound probe on its own for about 48 hours for observations of the phenomena of the solar corona and the solar wind. SPARTAN will be retrieved by Gernhardt through the operation of the robot arm on Sunday morning. The five astronauts on board Endeavour began their first full day in space this morning at 2:09am Central time as Mission Control awakened the crew with Elvis Presley's "You Ain't Nothing But A Hounddog", marking the start of a busy day in orbit for the so-called "Dog Crew", the nickname adopted for the STS-69 crew by Commander Dave Walker. Walker, a four-time Shuttle veteran, was awakened twice during the night by alarms on board Endeavour triggered by a temporary problem in the data path between the ship's on-board computers and the Shuttle's KU-band communications system. Walker reset the KU-system on both occassions and the entire system was rebooted by Astronaut Jim Newman after the crew was formally awakened. The KU system is currently healthy, with flight controllers reported a strong lock between Endeavour's KU-band antenna and the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite system. Engineers are trying to troubleshoot one other problem with an audio speaker in the Shuttle's middeck which apparently failed shortly after Endeavour reached orbit. It is a similar problem to one which was noted on the last flight of Endeavour in March, STS-67. The speaker problem will have no impact on any payload operations for the duration of the STS-69 mission. With all of its systems in good shape, Endeavour is orbiting the Earth every 92 minutes at an altitude of 230 miles.