Spaceflight Now: STS-101 Mission Report

Scott J. "Doc" Horowitz, Ph.D. (Colonel, USAF)
OFFICIAL NASA BIOGRAPHY
Posted: April 20, 2000

PERSONAL DATA: Born March 24, 1957, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but considers Thousand Oaks, California, to be his hometown. Married to the former Lisa Marie Kern. They have one child. He enjoys designing, building, and flying home-built aircraft, restoring automobiles, and running. His father, Seymour B. Horowitz, resides in Thousand Oaks, California. His mother, Iris D. Chester, resides in Santa Monica, California. Her parents, Frank and Joan Ecker, reside in Jensen Beach, Florida.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Newbury Park High School, Newbury Park, California, in 1974; received a bachelor of science degree in engineering from California State University at Northridge in 1978; a master of science degree in aerospace engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1979; and a doctorate in aerospace engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1982.

SPECIAL HONORS: NASA Exceptional Service Medal (1997), Defense Meritorious Service Medal (1997), NASA Space Flight Medals (STS-75 1996, STS-82 1997), Defense Superior Service Medal (1996), USAF Test Pilot School Class 90A Distinguished Graduate (1990); Combat Readiness Medal (1989); Air Force Commendation Medals (1987, 1989); F-15 Pilot, 22TFS, Hughes Trophy (1988); F-15 Pilot, 22TFS, CINCUSAFE Trophy; Mission Ready in the F-15 Eagle at Bitburg Air Base (1987); Systems Command Quarterly Scientific & Engineering Technical Achievement Award (1986); Master T-38 Instructor Pilot (1986); Daedalean (1986); 82nd Flying Training Wing Rated Officer of the Quarter (1986); Outstanding Young Men In America (1985); Outstanding T-38 Instructor Pilot (1985); Outstanding Doctoral Research Award for 1981-82 (1982); Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society (1980); Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society (1978); 1st Place ASME Design Competition.

EXPERIENCE: Following graduation from Georgia Tech in 1982, Scott worked as an associate scientist for the Lockheed-Georgia Company, Marietta, Georgia, where he performed background studies and analyses for experiments related to aerospace technology to validate advanced scientific concepts. In 1983, he graduated from Undergraduate Pilot Training at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona. From 1984 to 1987, he flew as a T-38 instructor pilot and performed research and development for the Human Resources Laboratory at Williams Air Force Base. The following two years were spent as an operational F-15 Eagle Fighter Pilot in the 22nd Tactical Fighter Squadron stationed at Bitburg Air Base in Germany. In 1990, Scott attended the United States Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and was subsequently assigned as a test pilot flying A-7s and T-38s for the 6512th Test Squadron at Edwards. Additionally, from 1985 to 1989, Scott served as an adjunct professor at Embry Riddle University where he conducted graduate level courses in aircraft design, aircraft propulsion and rocket propulsion. In 1991, as a professor for California State University, Fresno, he conducted graduate level courses in mechanical engineering including advanced stability and control. Scott has logged more than 4,000 hours in over 50 different aircraft.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected as a pilot by NASA in March 1992, Scott reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992 . He successfully completed a year of initial training and assignments since then include: working technical issues for the Astronaut Office Operations Development Branch; support crew at the Kennedy Space Center for Shuttle launches and landings. A veteran of two space flights, he has logged over 617 hours in space. He served as pilot on STS-75 in 1996 and STS 82 in 1997. Horowitz is assigned to STS-101, the third Shuttle assembly mission for the International Space Station. Launch is scheduled for early 2000.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: STS-75 launched February 22, 1996 and landed back at the Kennedy Space Center on March 9, 1996. Principal payloads on STS-75 were the reflight of Tethered Satellite System (TSS) and the third flight of the United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-3). The TSS successfully demonstrated the ability of tethers to produce electricity. The TSS experiment produced a wealth of new information on the electrodynamics of tethers and plasma physics before the tether broke at 19.7 km, just shy of the 20.7 km goal. The crew also worked around the clock performing combustion experiments and research related to USMP-3 microgravity investigations used to improve production of medicines, metal alloys, and semiconductors. The flight was completed in 252 orbits covering 6.5 million miles in 377 hours and 40 minutes.

STS-82, the second Hubble Space Telescope (HST) maintenance mission, launched at night on February 11 and returned to a night landing at Kennedy Space Center on February 21, 1997. During the flight, the crew retrieved and secured the HST in Discovery's payload bay. In five space walks, two teams installed two new spectrometers and eight replacement instruments, as well as replacing insulation patches over three compartments containing key data processing, electronics and scientific instrument telemetry packages. Following completion of upgrades and repairs, HST was redeployed and boosted to a higher orbit. The flight was completed in 149 orbits covering 3.8 million miles in 9 days, 23 hours, 37 minutes.

Scott Horowitz

Video vault
STS-101 pilot Scott Horowitz talks about the mission in a preflight interview with NASA public affairs.
  PLAY (731k, 4min 49sec QuickTime file)
Download QuickTime 4 software to view this file.

NewsAlert
Sign up for Astronomy Now's NewsAlert service and have the latest news in astronomy and space e-mailed directly to your desktop (free of charge).

Your e-mail address:

 


Latest news
See our Mission Status Center for the very latest news on the flight.



CREW DATABASE | STS-101 INDEX | MISSION STATUS CENTER