Grew up in San Jose, California.. Educated Stanford. Total EVA Time: 2.07 days. Number of EVAs: 7.
In August 1993, Smith completed one year of astronaut candidate training. He served as the Astronaut Office representative for the Space Shuttle main engines, the solid rocket boosters, the external tank, and Shuttle safety from April to November 1993. In September 1993, Smith became the first member of the 1992 astronaut class to receive a flight assignment.
Smith served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on Mission STS-68, September 30 to October 11, 1994. Smith's responsibilities were split between Shuttle systems, Space Radar Lab 2 (SRL-2, the flight's primary payload), and several experiments located in the crew cabin. Smith was one of two crewmen trained to perform a space walk had one been required. As part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, SRL-2 studied the Earth's surface and atmosphere, creating radar images of the Earth's surface environment and mapping global carbon monoxide pollution. Endeavour circled Earth 183 times and traveled 4.7 million miles during the 11 day, 5 hour and 46 minute flight.
From November 1994 until March 1996, Smith was assigned to duties at the Kennedy Space Center 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.
Smith performed three space walks as a member of the February 1997 STS-82 Discovery crew which serviced the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The crew completed five space walks in order to dramatically improve the scientific capability of the telescope and to replace degraded support equipment. HST's orbit was also increased 8 miles by the crew. The flight orbited the Earth 150 times covering 4.1 million miles in 9 days, 23 hours, 37 minutes and Smith's three space walks totaled 19 hours, 10 minutes.
Birth Place: Phoenix, Arizona.
Spaceflights: 4 .
Total time in space: 40.01 days.
Mission Specialists: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics and minimum three years of related experience or an advanced degree. Vision minimum 20/150 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20. Maximum sitting blood pressure of 140/90. Height between 150 and 193 cm.. Four pilots and 15 mission specialists, nine civilians and ten military. Chosen from 2054 applicants, 87 of which screened in December 1991/January 1992. Five additional international astronauts.
The Hubble Space Telescope was released back into orbit at 06:41 GMT on February 19. Discovery landed on Runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center at 08:32 GMT on February 21.