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.
advertisement
