Adam Steltzner: NASA Engineer
Innovation speaker, NASA Chief Engineer, and leadership expert Adam Steltzner inspires organizations to solve impossible challenges through courageous leadership, high-performing teams, and breakthrough innovation.
Quick Facts:
- International keynote speaker and NASA Chief Engineer
- Chief Engineer for the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover mission
- Engineering leader behind the revolutionary Sky Crane landing system for the Curiosity Rover
- Led teams of more than 6,000 scientists and engineers through one of NASA's most complex missions
- Formats:
- Keynote Speaker | Innovation Expert | Leadership Strategist
- Audiences:
- CEOs, executive teams, engineers, technology organizations, innovation leaders, researchers, educators, government agencies, manufacturing companies, healthcare leaders, and organizations navigating complex transformation.
- Outcomes:
- Build high-performing teams capable of solving complex problems under pressure.
- Apply practical leadership strategies that foster innovation, resilience, and courageous decision-making.
- Develop a culture where curiosity, collaboration, and disciplined execution transform impossible challenges into extraordinary achievements.
- Travels from: Altadena, CA
- **US Fee range: On Request
Talent Services
Keynote Topics:
Into the Unknown
How Leadership, Ingenuity, and Perseverance Put a Rover on Mars
Only Adam Steltzner and his talented team at Jet Propulsion Lab could follow their “Curiosity” rover success with the stunning Mars 2020 mission to land the rover “Perseverance” on the red planet. The magnificent landing on Mars on February 18, 2021 was akin to hurling a dart from New York City to land in a 5-foot circle in Washington DC.
More than a technological achievement, the successful mission stands as an extraordinary leadership accomplishment in the midst of a global pandemic. In his exhilarating keynote, full of fascinating anecdotes and breathtaking images, Steltzner shares his own innovation challenges, leadership struggles, and flawless execution.
Most importantly, he shows how you can overcome daunting obstacles in times of uncertainty and change. The human spirit is boundless, and Steltzner leaves you unafraid to journey from your comfort zone to explore your own exciting future.
The Right Kind of Crazy
A True Story of Teamwork, Leadership and High Stakes Innovation
With a rich and varied background, Adam Steltzner had many of the needed skills to lead the landing team for the Curiosity rover. That said, his team would struggle for almost a decade with design challenges and set backs.
- How did he keep the team focused and on task?
- What makes a team gel and enables truly innovative thinking?
- How do team dynamics drive that process forward or inhibit it?
- And how can organizational culture create an environment for sustained performance?
The challenges he and the team faced and the lessons learned from those struggles can help audiences understand how to better lead their high performing teams, manage innovation and drive towards excellence.
How Curiosity Changed My Life
Curiosity has touched Adam Steltzner’s life in parallel arcs. In his personal life there is the transformation from wan-a-be rock star at 21 year of age to rocket scientist at 30, a transition started when he followed his curiosity.
In his professional life, he was responsible for landing the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars, an act that demanded he use his curiosity to help us follow ours. Curiosity and exploration, the spark and the fire that burns from it, are powerful disruptors of human existence.
Steltzner explores these topics and asserts that when we follow our own curiosity and explore what we might be, we are better for it.
Talent Short Bio
Adam Steltzner is an internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, NASA Chief Engineer, aerospace engineer, and innovation leader best known for leading some of the most ambitious engineering achievements in human history. As Chief Engineer for NASA’s Mars 2020 Mission, he guided the development of the Perseverance Rover, helping deliver one of the most complex robotic exploration missions ever attempted with the goal of determining whether life once existed on Mars.
Originally an aspiring rock musician before pursuing a career in science, Adam’s unconventional journey to becoming a Ph.D. rocket scientist reflects the curiosity, creativity, and perseverance that define his leadership philosophy. His career at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been dedicated to solving problems once considered impossible by combining rigorous engineering with bold innovation and exceptional teamwork.
Adam first gained international recognition as the engineering leader behind the revolutionary Sky Crane landing system that successfully delivered the Curiosity Rover to the surface of Mars in 2012. Widely regarded as one of the greatest engineering achievements in modern space exploration, the project demonstrated how courageous leadership, calculated risk-taking, and collaborative problem-solving can turn seemingly impossible ideas into reality.
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