STEPHANIE WILSON

A Boston native, became the second African American woman to go into space on Tuesday July 6, 2006 as part of the seven-member crew of the Shuttle Discovery.

By J. Coyden Palmer

The Independence Day launch for Space Shuttle Discovery was the first journey into space for Stephanie Wilson, who now becomes the second African American woman in space. Wilson, 39, will serve as a mission specialist and operate the shuttle's 50-foot robotic arm. The Boston native earned her bachelor's degree in 1988 from Harvard in engineering and her master's in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas. She was originally accepted into the NASA program in 1996.

Wilson, along with six others, lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida shortly after 1:30 p.m. Chicago time on July 4th. The crew's objective is the link up with the international space station where they will drop off German astronaut Thomas Reiter for a six-month stay. They will also take much needed supplies to the station, do some repair work on the station and evaluate the shuttle for damages.

In preflight interviews, Wilson said she has wanted to go into space since she was 13. The avid skier in her free time said she understands there is a risk with her career choice, but that the good outweighs the potential risks.

"Well, humans have always had a need to understand, a quest for knowledge, and a thirst for exploring the unknown," said Wilson, who is also a stamp collector. "I believe that space exploration is something that we must do. It's important to our future. That makes the risk worthwhile."

Chicago's own Dr. Mae Jemison was the first African American woman in space when she made the voyage in June of 1987. Now a lecturer and historical figure, Dr. Jemison lives in Houston, Texas and has served as

liftoff, damaging the ship's tile that deflects heat from the craft as it reenters the atmosphere. NASA has taken several steps over the years to try to prevent that from happening again.

Shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said Discovery had a smooth liftoff and that even though there was some foam lost during liftoff, none of it is of major concern. Hale said Discovery was so high when the pieces came off that there wasn't enough air to accelerate the foam into the shuttle and cause damage.

As for Wilson, she said she is very excited about her first mission into space and that she is most looking forward to meeting the two other astronauts who are currently awaiting their arrival at the space station. She believes this mission is important in that it will show the nation's commitment to space exploration and it will give NASA more information that can be used on future missions.

"I believe the role of STS-121, as with the subsequent Shuttle missions, will be to complete our phase of low earth orbit," Wilson said. "We will not be going to the moon or Mars during this phase, but we certainly have learned a great deal about re-engineering and redesigning our systems; about upgrading our processes for developing or maintaining our vehicles here on the ground and interfacing with Mission Control. We will need to be able to do all of these things on a lunar or Martian mission. And so we are really just validating our processes and our techniques that will be applicable for our future lunar or Martian missions."

Source: Chicago Crusader

Links:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/wilson.html