Scott Jay "Doc" Horowitz (born March 24, 1957) is a retired American astronaut and a veteran of four

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

missions.

Biography

Horowitz went to

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...

in 1974 where he earned his

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in engineering in 1978; he subsequently obtained a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

degree in aerospace engineering from the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

in 1982, and then worked as a scientist for Lockheed Company.

NASA career

Horowitz joined the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

and flew as a

T-38 T38 or T-38 may refer to: * T38 (classification), a disability sport classification for disability athletics * T.38, a standard for fax over IP * T-38 tank, a Soviet light tank * Allison T38, a turboprop aircraft engine * Northrop T-38 Talon, a U.S ...

and

F-15 The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas's ...

pilot while also teaching courses in aircraft design and propulsion at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and later

California State University, Fresno California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bachelo ...

. He graduated from the

United States Air Force Test Pilot School The U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS) is the Air Force's advanced flight training school that trains experimental test pilots, flight test engineers, and flight test navigators to carry out tests and evaluations of new aerospace weapon ...

in Dec, 1990 as a member of class 90-A. Horowitz was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1992, and piloted missions

STS-75 STS-75 was a 1996 NASA Space Shuttle mission, the 19th mission of the ''Columbia'' orbiter. Crew Allen, Hoffman, Nicollier and Chang-Díaz had previously been members of the STS-46 crew, which had flown the TSS-1 experiment in 1992. Mission ...

(1996),

STS-82 STS-82 was the 22nd flight of the Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' and the 82nd mission of the Space Shuttle program. It was NASA's second mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, during which ''Discovery's'' crew repaired and upgraded the tel ...

(1997) and

STS-101 STS-101 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle '' Atlantis''. The mission was a 10-day mission conducted between 19 May 2000 and 29 May 2000. The mission was designated 2A.2a and was a resuppl ...

(2000). He commanded mission

STS-105 STS-105 was a mission of the Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' to the International Space Station, launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, 10 August 2001. This mission was ''Discoverys final mission until STS-114, because ''Discovery'' was gr ...

(2001), a visit to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

for equipment and crew transfer. In ''STS-75'', Horowitz and

Jeffrey A. Hoffman Jeffrey Alan Hoffman (born November 2, 1944) is an American former NASA astronaut and currently a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. Hoffman made five flights as a Space Shuttle astronaut, including the first mission to repair th ...

, both Jewish, had alternating use of the same bunk bed, to which Hoffman attached, upon Horowitz's request, a

mezuzah A ''mezuzah'' ( he, מְזוּזָה "doorpost"; plural: ''mezuzot'') is a piece of parchment, known as a ''klaf'', contained in a decorative case and inscribed with specific Hebrew verses from the Torah ( and ). These verses consist of the J ...

, using Velcro. Horowitz retired from the United States Air Force and NASA in October 2004. He returned to NASA in September 2005 to become the Associate Administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, in charge of the return of America to the Moon during the next decade.

Interim

During his interim away from NASA, Horowitz held a senior executive position with

ATK Thiokol Thiokol (variously Thiokol Chemical Corporation(/Company), Morton Thiokol Inc., Cordant Technologies Inc., Thiokol Propulsion, AIC Group, ATK Thiokol, ATK Launch Systems Group; finally Orbital ATK before becoming part of Northrop Grumman) was an ...

, the makers of the

solid rocket boosters A solid rocket booster (SRB) is a large solid propellant motor used to provide thrust in spacecraft launches from initial launch through the first ascent. Many launch vehicles, including the Atlas V, SLS and space shuttle, have used SRBs to give ...

. While there, he developed some ideas he had for new types of launch vehicles that used only solid fuel rockets. His ideas were crucial to the development of the mission hardware NASA has adopted for the

Vision for Space Exploration Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to: Perception Optical perception * Visual perception, the sense of sight * Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight * Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain und ...

. NASA Administrator

Michael D. Griffin Michael Douglas Griffin (born November 1, 1949) is an American physicist and aerospace engineer who served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering from 2018 to 2020. He previously served as Deputy of Technology for the Str ...

invited Horowitz back to NASA as an associate administrator so he could lead the effort to develop this hardware. On July 11, 2007, Horowitz announced his intent to leave NASA effective October 1, 2007.

Space flight experience

(February 22-March 9, 1996: 15 days, 7 hours) :::: Tethered satellite reflight, lost due to broken tether *

(February 11-February 21, 1997: 9 days, 23 hours) ::::

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...

servicing *

(May 19-May 29, 2000: 9 days, 21 hours) ::::

supply mission *

(August 10-August 22, 2001: 11 days, 21 hours) ::::

supply mission & crew rotation

Post NASA

Horowitz has been active in advocating reorienting NASA's focus to human exploration of

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

, with the goals of permanent human outposts and settlements on the red planet. Horowitz is a member of the steering committee of the

Mars Society The Mars Society is a nonprofit organization that advocates for human Mars exploration and colonization, founded by Robert Zubrin in 1998. It is based on Zubrin's Mars Direct plan, which aims to make human mission to Mars as lightweight and fe ...

. On one of his space shuttle flights as commander, he had the Mars Society's Martian flag hoisted up a mast out of the space shuttle payload bay, and flew the shuttle under the

flag of Mars A flag of Mars is a concept of a possible flag design, meant to symbolize the planet Mars or to represent a fictional Martian government, in works of fiction. Proposed flags Thomas O. Paine's design Thomas O. Paine, who served as the third Admi ...

. He later presented the Martian flag that had flown above the space shuttle to

Robert Zubrin Robert Zubrin (; born April 9, 1952) is an American aerospace engineer, author, and advocate for human exploration of Mars. He and his colleague at Martin Marietta, David Baker, were the driving force behind Mars Direct, a proposal in a 1990 res ...

at a conference of the

. In January 2018, Horowitz joined the board of advisors of the DAV foundation.

References

External links

NASA Biography

NASA - Scott Horowitz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horowitz, Scott J. 1957 births 20th-century American Jews California State University, Northridge alumni Georgia Tech alumni Living people Lockheed Martin people Mars Society Space Shuttle program astronauts United States Air Force officers U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School alumni United States Air Force astronauts 21st-century American Jews