Former NASA astronaut Steve Lee Smith addressing a session at the International Conclave on GenAI in Kochi on July 11.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Former NASA astronaut and technology executive Steve Lee Smith has lauded what he described as India’s ‘audacious’ goals and relentless mindset in achieving its lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3, surpassing bigwigs like Russia, Japan, and the US.
India can be proud of its progress and take forward the space programme with resilience and grit. He was speaking at a session on ‘‘Lessons Learned from a Skywalker’ at the two-day International Conclave on GenAI here on Thursday. The flagship event is being organised by the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) in collaboration with IBM.
Mr. Smith, who believes that the job of an astronaut is mission-driven, flew in space four times at 28,000 km/hour on the space shuttle covering 16 million miles during his stint in NASA. He also performed seven spacewalks, including repairs of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Mr. Smith, who recalled his friendship with India-born US astronaut Kalpana Chawla, also cited his experience of being rejected four times by NASA when he applied for NASA’s Astronaut Programme.
“I kept on working for it audaciously, and finally, I was able to make it. It was an incredible journey for me as an astronaut at NASA,” he said.
Mr. Smith said it was a super-exciting time as AI would help simplify life and prioritise things. He urged governments to ensure that they were building efficient AI models and training people with adequate skills.
