thumb|Smith totaled nearly 50 hours of spacewalking over his four flights.

Steven Lee Smith (born December 30, 1958), is an American technology executive and a former NASA 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 14th 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 degree in electrical engineering in 1981; a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1982; and a Master of Business Administration in 1987. All three degrees are from Stanford University. He did a 1-on-1 interview with them called Astronaut Steve Smith: How Youth Sports Took Him To The Outer Limits.

From 2000 to 2003 Smith was the director of Special Olympics 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. 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.thumb|Steve Smith by Christopher Michel in 2022

Smith has also joined several boards, including that of The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation and the Blue Sky Network.

References

  • Spacefacts Biography