About Us
The School of Astronaut Leadership Training, S.A.L.T. was founded by Hjortur Smarason to give people from all over the World access to the supreme training that astronauts get before going to space. The school is located in Iceland where the Apollo astronauts trained before going to the Moon.
Background
Neil Armstrong
and his fellow Apollo astronauts trained in Iceland before going to the Moon back in the sixties as the landscape in Iceland is what comes closest to the landscape on the Moon. Still today NASA and ESA send their scientists to Iceland to test equipment and methods before missions to both the Moon and Mars.
Leadership Training
Expedition based leadership training is at the heart of astronaut training. Every NASA crew goes on an expedition in the wilderness where they are taken out of their comfort zone with limited resources and their leadership and team player skills are put to the test. Each training expedition we conduct focuses on a different set of leadership skills that is intensively trained.
S.A.L.T.
Hjortur's grandfather was a record holding glider pilot and worked with the Apollo astronauts on their training mission in Iceland. Hjortur himself has lead a number of expeditions in Iceland and Greenland and worked on film projects for global consumer brands and Hollywood blockbusters, including the Game of Thrones series. His first space related project was for Nokia in 2012 sending a mobile phone to space to capture a picture of Earth from above. After working with space startups for a few years he founded the school in 2020, as he saw astronaut training being the perfect training to prepare leaders for the uncertainty the World was facing because of Covid-19, climate change, AI, tech and economic disruption.
The Team
Hjortur Smarason
Founder and Principal of S.A.L.T. Hjortur has a masters degree in peace negotiations, conflict resolution and diplomacy and has advised corporations, politicians, city councils and governments on their branding, communication strategies and crisis management. He has worked in East Greenland, Iceland, Russia, Nepal, the Balkans, Middle East and Africa. Hjortur used to teach at Iceland's oldest educational institute, Holar University College (est. 1206).
Dr. Jim Rice
Co-founder, Head of Astrogeology and ROV. Dr. Rice has probably come closer to living on Mars than anyone as he lead the geology studies of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars for NASA JPL for 15 years. He has additionally led 10 field geology missions in Iceland as well as long duration missions in Antarctica. He leads the S.A.L.T. geology and ROV (Remote Operated Vehicles) training.
Vilborg Arna Gissurardottir
Head of Mountaineering and Survival Training. Vilborg has climbed the seven summits and done a solo walk to the South Pole. She has lead numerous expeditions in Iceland, Greenland, the Himalayas and Antarctica and is currently the only woman who has gone solo both to the South Pole and a summit above 8.000 meters. Her expertise is mountaineering, extreme environments, expedition planning and endurance.
Gisli R. Olafsson
Head of SAR and Crisis Leadership. Gisli has a unique combination as both a former programmer at Microsoft in Seattle and a SAR specialist. He has lead disaster response and management in many of the biggest human disasters on Earth in the last decade, including the earthquakes in Haiti, Japan and Nepal, Ebola in West Africa, typhoons in Pakistan, Phillipines and Mozambique and many more. His role has been to coordinate accurate and reliable information flow between NGOs and governmental agencies during crisis.