On September 7, 1995, NASA’s space shuttle Endeavour launched on mission STS-69, marking the agency’s 100th successful crewed spaceflight. The launch took place from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a historic site that had also been used for Apollo moon missions. Over the next 11 days, the five-person crew conducted a variety of scientific experiments, deployed and retrieved a satellite named Spartan 201, and performed a nearly seven-hour spacewalk. This mission was significant because it was the first time two different payloads were both deployed and retrieved during the same flight. The mission was led by Commander David Walker and Pilot Kenneth Cockrell. Astronaut Jim Voss served as the payload commander, while Jim Newman and Michael Gernhardt were the mission specialists. During the spacewalk, Voss and Gernhardt tested new thermal upgrades to NASA’s space suits, as well as new tools and techniques that would later be used by astronauts working on the International Space Station, which was still in its early development phase at the time. One of the mission’s key payloads was the Spartan 201-03, a satellite designed to study the sun’s outer atmosphere as it transitioned into solar wind. This was the third of four planned Spartan 201 flights aboard NASA shuttles. Another important payload was the Wake Shield Facility-2, a stainless steel disk that created an "ultravacuum environment" in space. This allowed scientists to grow thin films for advanced electronics. During the mission, the disk was deployed twice, successfully producing four of the seven planned thin films and conducting an electrical field experiment for the U.S. Air Force during its second deployment. The crew of STS-69 was NASA’s second "dog crew," a tradition in which each astronaut adopts a nickname based on a dog. Walker was called "Red Dog," Cockrell was "Cujo," Voss was "Dog Face," Newman was "Pluto," and Gernhardt was "Under Dog." This lighthearted tradition helped foster camaraderie among the crew and was a way to keep morale high during long missions in space.