Steve Smith

Leadership at 17,500 Miles Per Hour

Expert on

  • Astronaut
  • Motivational
  • Leadership
  • Innovation
  • Adventure
  • Resilience

Fee Range

$35,000–$45,000

Travels from

CA, US

Biography

Steve Smith brings a truly unique perspective to the stage, combining experience in space exploration, business, engineering, leadership, and international diplomacy. A former NASA astronaut, Silicon Valley professional, and senior leader within the United States Astronaut Corps, Steve helps audiences connect lessons from high stakes exploration ventures to real world performance, teamwork, leadership, resilience, and innovation.

Known for his engaging and authentic presentation style, Steve delivers practical, actionable insights through compelling personal stories, transparency, stunning photography, and a blend of humor and inspiration that resonates with audiences of every size.

Before joining NASA, Steve earned two electrical engineering degrees and an MBA from Stanford University, becoming the only astronaut ever selected into the Astronaut Corps with an MBA. His business background includes leadership roles at IBM in semiconductor research and development and product management, along with ongoing work consulting with Silicon Valley venture capitalists and serving on multiple boards.

Steve later rose to become Deputy Chief Astronaut, second in command of NASA’s 125 member Astronaut Corps, where he helped oversee daily operations, policy development, and astronaut flight activities.

Internationally, Steve spent 12 years living in Europe serving as the United States’ lead space station negotiating representative to the European Space Agency and working closely with the Russian Space Agency. His diplomatic leadership required balancing technical, financial, and political realities while building consensus among multinational partners.

Steve’s journey to space is equally inspiring. After identifying his dream of becoming an astronaut at age seven, he overcame a near fatal accident, multiple medical disqualifications, and four astronaut application rejections before ultimately achieving that goal.

As a NASA astronaut, Steve flew on four Space Shuttle missions and completed seven spacewalks, including five historic missions repairing the Hubble Space Telescope. At the conclusion of his flight career, he ranked third in the world for total spacewalk time.

A lifelong competitor, Steve was also a seven time All American in swimming and water polo and a two time NCAA champion.

Through stories of perseverance, teamwork, leadership under pressure, and innovation at the edge of possibility, Steve Smith inspires audiences to pursue bold goals, navigate uncertainty, and perform at their highest level.

Speaker Videos

LEADERSHIP AT 17500 MILES PER HOUR

Strong leadership is a cornerstone of the human space program where leaders make decisions that carry risk to billions of dollars of equipment and to people’s lives. The leaders process and use massive amounts of information in a complex and dynamic environment that is also subject to budgets, stakeholders, schedules, and competition. These are also the attributes of today’s business environment. Steve will describe the practices of leadership in the challenging space business and how the practices can be used by business leaders to be effective in today’s competitive, uncertain global business arena.

Steve Smith is one of America’s most experienced astronauts with 4 flights and 7 spacewalks. Back on Earth, he quickly rose to the number two leadership position in the Astronaut Corps, was selected to lead multiple equipment failure investigations and teams, and was a Diplomat overseas for 12 years serving as NASA’s negotiating liaison in Europe. As a leader in space and back on Earth, he used a collection of practices and attitudes called The Explorer’s Mindset™.

Takeaways:

  • Key leadership techniques used in difficult environments
  • How to improve your organizations’ cohesiveness, resilience, and success
  • The Explorer’s Mindset™ attributes specifically for leadership in extreme uncertain times

THE EXPLORER’s MINDSET™: ACHIEVE and BALANCE

Exploration is a dangerous business that requires taking risks and making very tough decisions. To cope with extreme environments and challenges, explorers draw on a particular set of attributes and habits that includes creative thinking, resiliency to setbacks, and perseverance. It’s The Explorer’s Mindset™.

Steve Smith first dreamed of being an astronaut at age 7. He pursued that dream with determination for nearly three decades despite multiple, serious setbacks until he became one of America’s most experienced astronauts and spacewalkers.

Steve used The Explorer’s Mindset™ to guide him on that difficult path to NASA and to survive and succeed as an astronaut. He will describe how individuals and teams can and must adapt the mindset to succeed in today’s fast-paced, dynamic, uncertain business environment. He’ll also provide useable advice on how to still maintain a balanced, joyful life.

Takeaways:

  • An understanding of the mindset and practices of explorers
  • Motivation to adapt the mindset to increase your professional and personal advancements
  • Techniques to improve your life balance and joy while still advancing

AN ASTRONAUT’S JOURNEY: CHILDHOOD DREAMS TO RIDING ROCKETS

Steve Smith knows what it’s like to travel seven times the speed of a bullet at 17,500 MPH. He did it as an Astronaut but only after a 3-decade effort to get his first rocket ride and fulfill a dream expressed in childhood drawings. Along the way NASA rejected him 4 times and even rejected him permanently, or so NASA thought, by medically disqualifying him from applying. He’ll describe what inspired him to continue and how he became one of America’s most experienced astronauts and a leader in the Astronaut Corps. Steve will provide advice for all ages on thinking big, being creative, overcoming disappointment, and remaining strong and inspired.

Through the use of personal stories, gorgeous photos, and a passion and skill for sharing his experiences, Steve will describe how spaceflight can be everything from joyous to serious to comical. He’ll take you along on the ride. He’ll vividly describe the view of our planet from a distance and how that brought him joy for its beauty, but concern for its environmental fragility. He will inspire all to be good to nature – and to each other.

Takeaways:

  • How to think creatively and to set big goals
  • Skills to overcome obstacles at any point in your life
  • Techniques to improve your life balance and joy while still advancing
  • Have fun hearing about flying in space and seeing the Earth