Stephanie Wilson

Stephanie Diana Wilson (born September 27, 1966) is an American engineer and a NASA astronaut.

She flew to space onboard three Space Shuttle missions, and is the second African American 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 in 2022, however in 2024 she was assigned to the Crew-9 mission during which she should retake the lead.

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.

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 and a long career in electrical engineering for Raytheon, Sprague Electric, and Lockheed Martin, while Barbara, from Talbot County, Georgia, 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 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, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering science in 1988.

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.

Wilson earned a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas, in 1992.

Wilson has returned to Harvard as a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers.

Following the completion of her graduate work, Wilson began working for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in 1992.

As a member of the Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem for the Galileo spacecraft, 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.

Selected by NASA 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.

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.

In April 2010, Wilson flew as a mission specialist on STS-131.

She was the Chief Marshal for the 362nd Harvard Commencement on May 30, 2013.

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.

On October 18, 2019, Wilson was ground controller at Houston for the first all woman spacewalk by Christina Koch 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.

On January 31, 2024, NASA announced that Wilson would return to the International Space Station on SpaceX Crew-9 for the Expedition 71/72 mission.

Since sequential crew rotation missions typically overlap on the ISS for a few days, and Jeanette Epps from the Crew-8 mission will already be onboard, this will be the first time that two female African-American astronauts will be in space simultaneously.