STEVE SMITH
Tell us about your upbringing
I grew up in California. We have redwood trees,
mountains and the ocean, so we did a lot of camping and
backpacking. And with Silicon Valley right there, I was
surrounded by engineers, tech people and big thinkers
— people who take risks. Space was my dream from a
young age.
How did you become an astronaut?
I had a near-death experience at 14 that knocked me out
of becoming an Air Force pilot, which is what I’d wanted
to do in order to be an astronaut. I had to think of another
way; I learned to ly planes as a civilian, and I started
working at IBM, which was the tech company at the time. I
applied to NASA four times over a 10-year period and was
rejected four times. I was 31 when I was inally accepted.
What’s the hardest thing about going to space?
They give you a crushing amount of information to get
your head around. But saying goodbye to your children is
the hardest thing. Once you’re in space, you worry about
something happening to them while you’re away.
Tell us about the explorer’s mindset
Explorers are people who set high goals, knowing that
the path to reaching them is going to kick their ass and
that there’ll be setbacks and disappointments. But they
take this path because they know that whatever shows
up, they’ll be able to solve the problem through creativity.
Do you think a return to the Moon is imminent?
We’re on track to get back to the Moon in the next
few years, but we won’t be going by ourselves; it’ll be
an international efort. We’re going there because we
want to practise before we go to Mars, which is about 32
million miles away. And the next American to walk on
the Moon will be a woman, almost certainly.Why do we seem so keen to visit Mars?
There are 50 reasons for going to Mars — and more! Part
of it is sort of spiritual, as we’re born explorers who want
to go do things like that, but we might also ind something
there that would make our lives here on Earth better.What’s the future of space tourism?
Wealthy entrepreneurs who love space — thank you
Branson, Bezos and Musk — are building spaceships that
launch from the Kennedy Space Center. It’s not going to
be inancially accessible to most of us yet, but 100 years
from now, it’ll be just like taking a plane.Tell us about your irst spacewalk
It was with a veteran, Mark Lee, which helps, and I’d
trained really hard. But it’s more dangerous outside the
spaceship; our life insurance multiplies by four or ive if
we’re going outside. All that’s connecting you to the ship
is a wire. I remember coming up over the Namibian Coast
— the contrast between the blue Atlantic waters and these
giant orange sand dunes along the coast was beautiful.Has being an astronaut changed how you feel
about this planet?
When you see the Earth from overhead, it looks like an
island in a vast ocean and it strikes you that we need
to take care of the island. You also really see it as one
community; you don’t see borders. You realise we need to
promote peace — and be nice to each other.Who are your heroes?
Growing up, I was inluenced by Jacques Cousteau. When
I became an astronaut, I invited him to the Kennedy
Space Center to watch a launch. We talked about the
Earth; his real passion was clean water for everyone. We
have to protect the Earth for future generations, he said.
It was really this spiritual moment. We have to love the
Earth and, as explorers, help the cause.
INTERVIEW: AMELIA DUGGANWith space tourism slowly becoming a reality, we speak to the astronaut
about his experiences in space and how they’ve changed his outlookREAD THE FULL
INTERVIEW
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CO.UK/TRAVELSteve Smith is one of America’s most experienced astronauts, a
veteran of four Space Shuttle missions between 1994 and 2002 on
Endeavour, Discovery and Atlantis. kennedyspacecentre.com
@ExploreSpaceKSC^
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