Stephanie Diana Wilson (born September 27, 1966) is an American
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considerin ...
and a
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...
astronaut
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
. She flew to space onboard three
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program n ...
missions, and is the second
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
woman to go into space, after
Mae Jemison. her 42 days in space are the second most of any female African American astronaut, having been surpassed by
Jessica Watkins
Jessica Andrea Watkins (born May 14, 1988) is an American NASA astronaut, geologist, aquanaut and former international rugby player. Watkins was announced as the first Black woman who will complete an International Space Station long-term miss ...
in 2022.
Early life and education
Stephanie Wilson was born in
Boston, Massachusetts, on September 27, 1966. About a year later, her parents, Eugene and Barbara Wilson,
decided to move to
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfield� ...
. Eugene, a native of
Nesmith, South Carolina, used his electronics training from his time in the Navy to get himself a degree from
Northeastern University
Northeastern University (NU) is a private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in Charlotte, North Ca ...
and a long career in electrical engineering for
Raytheon,
Sprague Electric
Sprague Electric Company was an electronic component maker founded by Robert C. Sprague in 1926.
Sprague was best known for making a large line of capacitors used in a wide variety of electrical and electronic in commercial, industrial and milit ...
, and
Lockheed Martin
The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...
,
while Barbara, from
Talbot County, Georgia
Talbot County is a county located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. The 2020 census showed a population of 5,733. The county seat and largest city is Talbotton.
History
Talbot County was created from a portion of Mu ...
, worked as a production assistant for Lockheed Martin.
After attending Stearns Elementary School, she attended Crosby Junior High School.
For a career awareness class in middle school, Wilson was assigned to interview someone in a field that interested her. Since she liked to look up at the sky, she interviewed
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kille ...
astronomer
Jay Pasachoff,
clarifying her potential career interest in space. In high school, Eugene encouraged Stephanie to go into engineering,
so she decided to become an aerospace engineer. Wilson graduated from Taconic High School, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1984. She attended
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
, receiving a
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...
degree in engineering science in 1988. Wilson earned a
Master of Science
A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...
degree in aerospace engineering from the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
, in 1992.
Wilson has returned to Harvard as a member of the
Harvard Board of Overseers The Harvard Board of Overseers (more formally The Honorable and Reverend the Board of Overseers) is one of Harvard University's two governing boards. Although its function is more consultative and less hands-on than the President and Fellows of Ha ...
. She was the Chief Marshal for the 362nd Harvard Commencement on May 30, 2013.
Career
Engineering
Wilson worked for two years for the former
Martin Marietta Astronautics Group in Denver, Colorado. As a Loads and Dynamics engineer for the
Titan IV rocket, Wilson was responsible for performing coupled loads analyses for the launch vehicle and payloads during flight events. Wilson left Martin Marietta in 1990 to attend graduate school at the University of Texas. Her research focused on the control and modeling of large, flexible space structures.
Following the completion of her graduate work, Wilson began working for the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, La Cañada Flintridge, California ...
in
Pasadena, California
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
...
, in 1992. As a member of the Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem for the
Galileo spacecraft
''Galileo'' was an American robotic space probe that studied the planet Jupiter and its moons, as well as the asteroids Gaspra and Ida. Named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, it consisted of an orbiter and an entry probe. It wa ...
, Wilson was responsible for assessing attitude controller performance, science platform pointing accuracy, antenna pointing accuracy, and spin rate accuracy. She worked in the areas of sequence development and testing as well. While at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Wilson also supported the Interferometery Technology Program as a member of the Integrated Modeling Team, which was responsible for finite element modeling, controller design, and software development.
NASA
Selected by
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...
as an Astronaut Candidate in April 1996, Wilson reported to the
Johnson Space Center in August 1996. Having completed two years of training and evaluation, she is qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. She was initially assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Space Station Operations Branch to work with Space Station payload displays and procedures. She then served in the Astronaut Office
CAPCOM Branch, working in Mission Control as a prime communicator with on-orbit crews. Following her work in Mission Control, Wilson was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Shuttle Operations Branch involving the Space Shuttle Main Engines, External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters.
Wilson has flown on three shuttle missions. On
STS-121, Wilson flew aboard as a mission specialist. She also flew on the
STS-120 mission that delivered the
Harmony connecting module to the International Space Station.
[ In April 2010, Wilson flew as a Mission Specialist on STS-131.
On October 18, 2019, Wilson was ground controller at ]Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...
for the first all woman spacewalk by Christina Koch
Christina Hammock Koch ( ; born January 29, 1979) is an American engineer and NASA astronaut of the class of 2013. She received Bachelor of Science degrees in electrical engineering and physics and a Master of Science in electrical engineering ...
and Jessica Meir
On December 9, 2020, NASA announced that Stephanie Wilson was among the candidates for the Artemis program and if selected, she could be both the first woman and the first African-American on the Moon.
Spaceflight experience
STS-121
STS-121 (July 4–17, 2006), was a return-to-flight test mission and assembly flight to the International Space Station. During the 13-day flight, the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery tested new equipment and procedures that increase the safety of space shuttles, repaired a rail car on the International Space Station and produced never-before-seen, high-resolution images of the Shuttle during and after its July 4 launch. Wilson supported robotic arm operations for vehicle inspection, Multi-Purpose Logistics Module installation and EVAs and was responsible for the transfer of more than 28,000 pounds of supplies and equipment to the ISS. The crew also performed maintenance on the space station and delivered a new Expedition 13 crew member to the station. The mission was accomplished in 306 hours, 37 minutes and 54 seconds.
STS-120
STS-120 (October 23 – November 7, 2007) was a 6.25 million mile Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program n ...
mission to the International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...
(ISS). It delivered the '' Harmony'' module, and reconfigured the P6 truss in preparation for future assembly missions. STS-120 carried a new Expedition 16 crew member, Daniel Tani
Daniel M. Tani (born February 1, 1961) is an American engineer and retired NASA astronaut. He was born in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, but considers Lombard, Illinois, to be his hometown.
With Peggy Whitson, Tani conducted the 100th spacewalk on ...
, and returned Expedition 15 and Expedition 16 crewmember Clayton Anderson. The crew conducted four spacewalks and performed a previously untested repair method on the station's solar array. The mission was accomplished in 15 days, 2 hours, 23 minutes, during 238 orbits.
STS-131
STS-131 (April 5–20, 2010) was a resupply mission to the International Space Station. Space Shuttle Discovery was launched pre-dawn from Kennedy Space Center. Once docked to the space station, the crew delivered more than 27,000 pounds of hardware, supplies, experiments and equipment, including a tank full of ammonia coolant that required three spacewalks and robotics to install, new crew sleeping quarters, a window observation facility and a freezer for experiments. During the mission, Wilson was responsible for robotics for spacewalking support using the space station robotic arm and for robotic removal of the "Leonardo" Multi-Purpose Logistics Module from the payload bay of Discovery. For the return to Earth, Wilson robotically installed Leonardo, which was packed with more than 6,000 pounds of hardware, science results and used supplies, inside Discovery's payload bay. The STS-131 mission was accomplished in 15 days, 2 hours, 47 minutes and 10 seconds and traveled 6,232,235 statute miles in 238 orbits.
Artemis
Artemis
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified with ...
(2017–Present) is the mission NASA announced in 2020 to return to the moon, scheduled for 2024. Wilson has been selected as one of eighteen astronauts comprising the Artemis team. This mission will send the first woman and next man to walk on the lunar surface.
Personal life
Wilson is a Christian. Her hobbies include skiing and stamp collecting. She is married to Julius McCurdy.
Awards and honors
* NASA Distinguished Service Medal
The NASA Distinguished Service Medal is the highest award that can be bestowed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States. The medal may be presented to any member of the federal government, including both milita ...
(2009, 2011)
* NASA Space Flight Medal
The NASA Space Flight Medal is a decoration of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. According to its statutes, it is awarded "for significant achievement or service during individual participation as a civilian or military astrona ...
(2006, 2007, 2010)
* Honorary Doctorate of Science from Williams College (2011)
* Harvard College Women's Professional Achievement Award (2008)
* Harvard Foundation Scientist of the Year Award (2008)
* Young Outstanding Texas Exes Award (2005)
* Johnson Space Center Innovation Group Achievement Award (2013)
* Johnson Space Center Director Commendation Award (2013)
* Salem Trailblazer Award (2019)
Spaceflight gallery
File:Iss013e49432.jpg, Wilson in the US lab during STS-121
File:Stephanie Wilson and Naoko Yamazaki in the Cupola.jpg, Stephanie Wilson in the ''Cupola'' during STS-131, with JAXA astronaut Naoko Yamazaki
File:Stephanie Wilson STS-131 mission specialist in US lab.jpg, Wilson in the US lab, sorting out technical blueprints
File:Wilson in Cupola looking up.jpg, Observing the condition of the protective shutters in the ''Cupola
In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome.
The word derives, via Italian, f ...
'' during STS-131
File:ISS cupola with Stephanie Wilson.jpg, Stephanie relaxing to music in the ''Cupola'' during STS-131
File:STS-131 group pose with Stephanie Wilson in Cupola.jpg, Group photo with Naoko Yamazaki and Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger
File:255-STS-s131e008502.jpg, Wilson in Node 1
upright=1.0, The ''Unity'' module as seen in May 2011
The ''Unity'' connecting module, also known as Node 1, is the first U.S.-built component of the International Space Station (ISS). It connects the Russian and United States segments of th ...
File:Stephanie Wilson inside the Japanese Experiment Module.jpg, Inside '' Kibō'', the Japanese Experiment Module
File:STS-131 Metcalf-Lindenburger, Poindexter, Wilson, Yamazaki at Kibo.jpg, STS-131 crew playing around during their time off work
File:STS-131 TCDT10.jpg, Atop the launch pad tower for STS-131
File:STS-131 Flight Day 6 highlights.ogv, Mission highlights
See also
* List of African-American astronauts
African-American astronauts are Americans of African descent who have either traveled into space or been part of an astronaut program.
African-American astronauts
Traveled into space
Never traveled into space
Often cited as the first ...
References
External links
NASA biography
June 2019
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Stephanie
1966 births
Living people
People from Boston
American astronauts
Women astronauts
Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni
University of Texas at Austin College of Education alumni
African-American women engineers
American women engineers
African-American engineers
African-American Methodists
People of the African Methodist Episcopal church
African-American women aviators
American women aviators
African-American aviators
Aviators from Massachusetts
Space Shuttle program astronauts