Family, Friends Always Knew That He Would Go Far : Space shuttle: Now Kevin Chilton’s mom and dad are heading to Cape Canaveral to give the NASA pilot a big send-off for the maiden voyage of Endeavour.

Jim and Shirley Chilton of Westchester are off to Florida for a vacation. The Epcot Center and the golf, however, will be little more than distractions. The main event will be a visit to Cape Canaveral, where on Thursday their son, Kevin, is scheduled to blast off aboard the space shuttle Endeavour.

“We’re just thrilled to be a part of it,” Jim Chilton said. “This mission will contribute to science and mankind.”

Kevin Chilton, 37, has been selected as the pilot of Endeavour for its maiden voyage. The new craft, named for the ship commanded by the 18th-Century British explorer Capt. James Cook, replaces the shuttle Challenger, which was destroyed in the 1986 explosion that killed six astronauts and teacher Christa McAuliffe.

On launch day, the Chiltons will be joined in the guest bleachers at Kennedy Space Center by dozens of relatives and some of their son’s old teachers and friends from the Westchester neighborhood where he grew up.

Among the guests will be Sister Mary Anne Peterson of St. Bernard High School, the Catholic school in Playa del Rey that Kevin Chilton attended.

“It isn’t very often that a high school (has a) graduate in the astronaut program,” Peterson said.

The oldest of four children, Chilton grew up in a modest stucco home on Beland Avenue in Westchester, where his parents still live. A lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, he was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1987.

“He was always interested in airplanes,” said Shirley Chilton, who quit her job as an American Airlines flight attendant after she got married. Her husband is a retired flight test engineer for McDonnell Douglas.

But it wasn’t until a close family friend flew Chilton over the ocean in a small plane that he decided to become a pilot.

“He was very excited about it,” his father recalled. “He couldn’t believe that anybody could get paid for that.”

Chilton played many sports, making up for his small size with plenty of determination, his parents said.

Wilna Twomey, whose sons played Little League baseball with the Chilton boys, said Chilton was not a gifted athlete, but added, “I have never met a boy that was so polite.” Twomey and her son, Dan, plan to attend the launch.

“You hear nowadays about the breakdown of the family,” Twomey said. “Well there’s no breakdown at the Chiltons. They’re a fine example of what families can do.”

Chilton didn’t stay short forever--he grew rapidly in high school and is now a six-footer. After high school, he attended the Air Force Academy, graduating in 1976 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering sciences. He obtained a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University in 1977.

Schoolmate Curt Neff remembers Chilton as being just “one of the guys.” He was a dependable friend and was shy around girls, he said. The best friends met in first grade and double-dated to their senior prom.

“He’s a hero in the most positive sense of the word,” said Neff, who now lives in Agoura. “But he’s still the same old person. . . . He’s a really nice guy.”

Neff plans to watch the shuttle landing May 11 at Edwards Air Force Base with some old high school friends.

Chilton and the six other members of the Endeavour crew are spending the days before the mission at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, so he is unavailable for interviews, said Barbara Schwartz, a NASA spokeswoman.

The crew members are undergoing intensive last-minute training while adjusting to the sleeping schedule that will be used on the mission.

Chilton’s wife, Catherine Dreyer, and parents will visit with him briefly three days before the launch, after they are given a clean bill of health by a doctor. Chilton’s two children will not be allowed to see him.

“They don’t want the astronauts catching something at the last minute, or worse, getting sick during the flight,” Schwartz explained.

Chilton’s special duties will include maneuvering the shuttle into position for three space walks and a rescue attempt for a $150-million communications satellite.

Jim and Shirley Chilton insist they are not worried that Endeavour might meet with an accident such as the one that destroyed its predecessor, Challenger.

“We’ve been around airplanes enough,” Jim Chilton said. “NASA has exhausted every possibility for failure. . . . He was at more risk when he was a fighter pilot flying F-14s.”