Steve Smith

Steve Smith made a childhood dream to be an astronaut come true despite multiple setbacks. As an astronaut, he flew four space shuttle missions and performed 7 spacewalks to repair the Hubble Space Telescope and to build the Space Station. At the conclusion of his career, he was the third most experienced spacewalker in history and he twice received NASA’s highest honor, The Distinguished Service Medal.

Steve’s path to space was long (30+ years) and arduous. That path included a life-changing near-death experience as a youth, an MBA and two engineering degrees from Stanford, elite national athletics success, tenure as an IBM Product Manager, a medical rejection by the Air Force, four astronaut application rejections by NASA, and a medical rejection by NASA.

At NASA he was the first in his class named to a flight and rose to the Deputy Chief Astronaut leadership position – the number two Corps’ position – where he led the daily operations of the 125-member Astronaut Corps. He led multiple failure reviews, operations teams, and spacewalking crews. After his flight career, he served as a Diplomat living overseas for a decade and conducted NASA negotiations with European and Russian space agencies.

Steve now uses his one-of-a-kind mix of experiences to serve as a board director, venture capital advisor, and keynote speaker. He credits hard-won lessons learned and a resulting set of principles, which he calls the Explorer’s Mindset™,” for giving him the creativity, will, and grit to achieve his goal and succeed as an astronaut, decision-maker, and leader.

Follow Steve:
Website