CSUN ALUM'S LIFTOFF\Ex-Air Force pilot to serve aboard shuttle flight.

Byline: Daniel Taub Daily News Staff Writer

When Cal State Northridge graduate Scott J. Horowitz helps pilot the space shuttle Columbia on its flight next week, he'll be fulfilling a goal he set when he was a schoolboy.

"His sixth-grade teacher told him he should be an astronaut, and he decided it was a good idea," said his mother, Iris Chester of Santa Monica. "It's been a lot of years of him wanting to do this."

Horowitz, who grew up in Thousand Oaks and graduated from Cal State Northridge in 1978, said his engineering education and his experience as an Air Force pilot also helped lead him to a space career.

"If you enjoy math and science, and you enjoy flying, this is an obvious career choice," said Horowitz, 38, in a phone interview from Houston, where he is training.

The 75th Space Shuttle flight is scheduled for Thursday. It will be the first shuttle mission for Horowitz, who began flying with his father at age 7.

He later joined the Air Force, became a test pilot and then was accepted into the the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's astronaut training program.

Before being selected for a shuttle mission, Horowitz had to go through a year's training in shuttle simulators and airplanes.

Horowitz then spent an additional year and a half as a "Cape Crusader" - one of the workers who helps the astronauts prepare for shuttle missions.

"We're the ones you see in the white suits that strap the crews in," Horowitz said.

Horowitz's primary role as pilot is to oversee the shuttle's computer system and to help the commander pilot the shuttle, said NASA spokesman James Hartsfield.

"He is tantamount to the co-pilot on an airliner," Hartsfield said. "The commander's like the pilot, the pilot's like the co-pilot."

During the coming mission, Horowitz and the six other astronauts will explore ways to generate energy for future spacecraft and will experiment with crystal growth and combustion in the nearly gravity-free environment of the space shuttle.

During the energy experiment, the space shuttle and a tethered satellite will fly through the Earth's ionosphere and generate electricity, Horowitz said.

One of the reasons Horowitz is most excited about the flight is that it will be witnessed by his baby daughter, Arielle, who was born Monday.

"She was due on launch morning. She came 10 days early," Horowitz said.

Horowitz said his wife, Lisa, had made plans to have a doctor with her at the launch site in case she gave birth.

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(color) Astronaut Scott Horowitz will be launched into orbit next week.