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. 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. 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 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. 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 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