![Astronaut Steven L](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Astronaut_Steven_L._Smith_%2827946756231%29.jpg)
Steven Lee Smith (born December 30, 1958), is an American technology executive and former
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
astronaut, being a veteran of four space flights covering 16 million miles and seven spacewalks totaling 49 hours and 25 minutes. Smith’s spacewalk time places him in the top ten on the all-time American and World spacewalk duration lists.
Education
Attended Bret Harte Middle School in San Jose, California and graduated from
Leland High School, San Jose, California, in 1977; received a
Bachelor of Science
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 o ...
degree in
electrical engineering in 1981; a
Master of Science
A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...
degree in
electrical engineering in 1982; and a
master’s degree in business administration in 1987. All three degrees are from
Stanford University.
Awards and honors
NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal
The NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal is awarded to US government employees only for notably outstanding leadership which affects technical or administrative programs of NASA. The leadership award may be given for an act of leadership, for sustain ...
,
NASA Space Flight Medal
The NASA Space Flight Medal is a decoration of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. According to its statutes, it is awarded "for significant achievement or service during individual participation as a civilian or military astrona ...
,
NASA Exceptional Service Medal
The NASA Exceptional Service Medal is an award granted to U.S. government employees for significant sustained performance characterized by unusual initiative or creative ability that clearly demonstrates substantial improvement in engineering, ae ...
, IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award, IBM Outstanding Community Service Award. Seven-time high school and collegiate All-American in swimming and water polo. Two-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Champion at Stanford in
water polo
Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...
. Captain of the 1980 NCAA Championship team. Former Board Member of
Special Olympics
Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in ...
Texas.
Career with IBM
Steve Smith worked for
IBM in the Large Scale Integration (semiconductor) Technology Group in San Jose as a technical group lead from 1982 until 1985. Following a leave to pursue graduate studies, Smith returned to IBM’s Hardware and Systems Management Group as a product manager until 1989.
Volunteerism
Smith is a member of the National Advisory Board for the
Positive Coaching Alliance
Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) is an American non-profit organization which strives to create a positive youth sports environment.
Since its founding in 1998, PCA has established 18 chapters nationwide and has delivered more than 20,000 live g ...
, a
nonprofit which provides training workshops to coaches, parents, and sports administrators of schools and youth sports organizations. He did a 1-on-1 interview with them called ''Astronaut Steve Smith: How Youth Sports Took Him To The Outer Limits''.
From 2000-2003 Smith was the director of
Special Olympics
Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in ...
Texas. This followed Smith winning the 1998 Outstanding Service from a Community Leader Award.
NASA career
Smith joined NASA in 1989 as a payload officer responsible for preflight payload integration and real-time flight controller support for Mission Control in the Mission Operations Directorate. After being selected to be an astronaut candidate in 1992, Smith went through a year of astronaut candidate training, and in September 1993, he became the first member of the 1992 astronaut class to receive a flight assignment.
He served as the Astronaut Office representative for the
Space Shuttle Main Engines, 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 giv ...
, the
external tank
The Space Shuttle external tank (ET) was the component of the Space Shuttle launch vehicle that contained the liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer. During lift-off and ascent it supplied the fuel and oxidizer under pressure to ...
, and shuttle safety. Smith was also assigned to duties at the
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...
for a year and a half as a member of the astronaut support team. The team was responsible for space shuttle prelaunch vehicle checkout, crew ingress and strap-in prior to launch, and crew egress post landing. After
STS-103
STS-103 was a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission by Space Shuttle ''Discovery''. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 19 December 1999 and returned on 27 December 1999. It was also the last Shuttle mission of the 19 ...
, he served as the Deputy Chief Astronaut for a year. Smith completed an assignment serving as the NASA
Automated Transfer Vehicle
The Automated Transfer Vehicle, originally Ariane Transfer Vehicle or ATV, was an expendable cargo spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), used for space cargo transport in 2008–2015. The ATV design was launched to orbit fiv ...
(ATV) Launch Package Manager for the ISS Program, and currently serves as the NASA
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 ( ...
Program Liaison to the
European Space Agency.
Steve Smith is a veteran of four space flights covering 16 million miles and seven spacewalks totaling 49 hours and 25 minutes. Smith’s spacewalk time places him in the top five on the all-time American and World spacewalk duration lists.
STS-68
Smith served as a mission specialist aboard the mission
STS-68
STS-68 was a human spaceflight mission using that launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 30 September 1994.
Crew
Launch
Launch 30 September 1994 at 7:16:00.068 am EDT from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A. The Launch windo ...
in September 1994. Smith’s responsibilities were split between shuttle systems and Space Radar Lab 2 (SRL-2, the flight’s primary payload). Smith was one of two crewmen trained to perform a spacewalk had one been required. ''Endeavour'' circled the Earth 183 times and traveled 4.7 million miles during the 11-day flight.
STS-82
Smith performed three spacewalks as a member of the February 1997 mission,
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 ...
, which serviced the
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 vers ...
(HST). The crew completed five spacewalks in order to improve the scientific capability of the telescope and to replace degraded equipment. The flight orbited the Earth 150 times covering 4.1 million miles during the 10-day flight.
STS-103
Smith returned to the Hubble Space Telescope and performed two spacewalks as the Payload Commander for the ''Discovery'' mission,
STS-103
STS-103 was a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission by Space Shuttle ''Discovery''. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 19 December 1999 and returned on 27 December 1999. It was also the last Shuttle mission of the 19 ...
in December 1999. The crew performed three spacewalks to return Hubble to science operations with several upgraded subsystems. STS-103 orbited the Earth 120 times covering 3.2 million miles in just under 8 days.
STS-110
As the lead spacewalker of the April 2002
STS-110
STS-110 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on 8–19 April 2002 flown by Space Shuttle ''Atlantis''. The main purpose was to install the S0 Truss segment, which forms the backbone of the truss structure on the ...
crew which installed the
S0 Truss Truss on the International Space Station, Smith performed two of the flight’s four spacewalks. The crew spent a week in joint operations with the station’s
Expedition 4
Expedition 4 was the fourth expedition to the International Space Station (7 December 2001 - 15 June 2002).
Crew
Mission parameters
*Perigee: 384 km
*Apogee: 396 km
*Inclination: 51.6°
*Period: 92 min
Mission objectives
The Inte ...
crew. The STS-110 mission covered 4.5 million miles during 171 orbits in just under 11 days.
Subsequent NASA roles
Smith served as the NASA International Space Station (ISS) Program Liaison to the European Space Agency until mid-2015, after which he
went to serve as the Associate Director for ISS, Science Directorate, at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.
Post-NASA career
Since retiring from NASA, Smith is a
Keynote Speaker, giving talks for companies like
IBM and
LinkedIn
LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
. His speech topics include ''Lessons from Space to Enhance Your Life and Work'', ''Leadership at 17500 Miles Per Hour'', and ''An Astronaut's Journey: Dreams, Resilience, and Earth's Beauty.''
![Steve Smith by Christopher Michel in 2022](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Steve_Smith_by_Christopher_Michel_in_2022.jpg)
Smith has also joined several
boards
Board or Boards may refer to:
Flat surface
* Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat
** Plank (wood)
** Cutting board
** Sounding board, of a musical instrument
* Cardboard (paper product)
* Paperboard
* Fiberboard
** Hardboard, a t ...
, including that of The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation and the
Blue Sky Network.
References
External links
Spacefacts Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Steven
1958 births
Living people
American astronauts
Leland High School (San Jose, California) alumni
People from Phoenix, Arizona
Stanford University School of Engineering alumni
American School in Japan alumni
Space Shuttle program astronauts
Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni
Spacewalkers