PERSONAL DATA: Born December 30, 1958, in Phoenix, Arizona, but considers San Jose, California, to be his hometown. Married. He enjoys flying, scuba diving, basketball, camping, and traveling.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Leland High School, San Jose, California, in 1977; received a bachelor of science degree in electrical in 1981; a master of science degree in electrical engineering in 1982; and a master's degree in business administration in 1987. All three degrees are from Stanford University.

SPECIAL HONORS: NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, NASA Space Flight Medal, NASA Exceptional Service Medal, IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award, IBM Outstanding Community Service Award. Seven-time high school and collegiate All-American in swimming and water polo. Two-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Champion at Stanford in water polo. Captain of the 1980 NCAA Championship team. Board Member of Texas Special Olympics.

EXPERIENCE: Steve Smith worked for IBM in the Large Scale Integration (semiconductor) Technology Group in San Jose as a technical group lead from 1982 until 1985. During that time, he was responsible for the development of electron beam chemical and lithographic processes. Following a leave to pursue graduate studies, Smith returned to IBM's Hardware and Systems Management Group as a product manager until 1989.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Steve Smith is a veteran of three space flights covering 12 million miles and five space walks totaling 35 hours. He joined NASA in 1989 in the Mission Operations Directorate. As a payload officer, his duties included preflight payload integration and real-time flight controller support in Mission Control. He was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1992 and then completed one year of astronaut candidate training.

In September 1993, Smith became the first member of the 1992 astronaut class to receive a flight assignment. He has served as the Astronaut Office representative for the Space Shuttle main engines, the solid rocket boosters, the external tank, and Shuttle safety. Smith was also assigned to duties at the Kennedy Space Center for a year and a half 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. Most recently, he served as the Deputy Chief Astronaut for a year.

Smith served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on Mission STS-68 in September 1994. Smith's responsibilities were split between Shuttle systems and Space Radar Lab 2 (SRL-2, the flight's primary payload). Smith was one of two crewmen trained to perform a space walk had one been required. Endeavour circled Earth 183 times and traveled 4.7 million miles during the 11 day, 5 hour and 46 minute flight.

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.

Smith was the Payload Commander for STS-103 in December 1999, the Hubble Space Telescope 3A Servicing Mission. The crew performed three space walks to return Hubble to science operations with several upgraded subsystems. Smith performed two space walks totaling 16 hours and 20 minutes. STS-103 orbited the Earth 120 times covering 3.2 million miles in just under 8 days.

Steve Smith is currently assigned to the EVA crew of STS-110, a 10-day mission to the International Space Station. Launch is scheduled for Spring 2002.