Astronaut Biography: Stephanie D. Wilson

NAME: Stephanie D. Wilson
NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA: Born in 1966 in Boston Massachusetts. Enjoys snow skiing, music, stamp collecting, and traveling.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Taconic High School, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1984; received a bachelor of science degree in engineering science from Harvard University in 1988, and a master of science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas, in 1992.

ORGANIZATIONS: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

EXPERIENCE: After graduating from Harvard in 1988, Wilson worked for 2 years for the former Martin Marietta Astronautics Group in Denver, Colorado. As a Loads and Dynamics engineer for Titan IV, 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, she 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.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected by NASA 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 completed her first space flight on STS-121 in 2006 and has logged almost 13-days in space. She is assigned to the STS-120 mission that will deliver the Node 2 connecting module to the International Space Station.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: 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 4th 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.

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