Piers Sellers

Infobox Astronaut
name =Piers Sellers

---

type =NASA Astronaut
status =Active
nationality =British / American
date_birth =birth date and age|1955|4|11
date_death =
place_birth =Crowborough, Sussex, United Kingdom
place_death =
occupation =Research scientist
rank =
selection =1996 NASA Group
time = 23d 14h 34m
mission =STS-112, STS-121
insignia =|

Piers John Sellers (born 11 April 1955) is a British-American scientist and a NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions.

Career

He and his wife left the UK in 1982, moving to the United States, where Sellers began his NASA career as a research meteorologist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.. Sellers' work in the field of meteorology focused primarily on computer modelling of climate systems, but he maintained his aircraft pilot skills."World Climate News", Jan 2007, "NASA astronaut’s early career in WCRP". [http://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/piers_sellers_en.html Online at WMO] retrieved on October 31, 2007.] Sellers began applying annually to become an astronaut in 1984, but his lack of US citizenship was a problem; he became a naturalised US citizen in 1991.

Quotation|Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in April 1996, Piers reported to the NASA Johnson Space Center in August 1996. He completed two years of training and evaluation and was initially assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Computer Support Branch, followed by service in the Astronaut Office Space Station Branch. During that time, Piers worked part time in Moscow as a technical liaison on ISS computer software. Twice flown, Piers has logged over 559 hours in space, including almost 41 EVA hours in 6 spacewalks.|Lyndon B. Johnson Space CenterQuoted extensively from public domain text in the [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/sellers.html JSC NASA Biography] retrieved on October 31, 2007.]

Education

Sellers, born in Crowborough, Sussex, was educated at Tyttenhanger Lodge Pre-preparatory School in Seaford, East Sussex and Cranbrook School, Kent, where he was trained as a Royal Air Force cadet to pilot gliders and powered aircraft."Goddard News" June 1996, "Piers Sellers Picked for Astronaut Corps". [http://www.daac.ornl.gov/BOREAS/bhs/News/Piers_in_Space.html Online via BOREAS] retrieved on October 31, 2007.] NASA Johnson Space Center, [http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts121/interview_sellers_2006.html 2006 Preflight Interview: Piers Sellers] retrieved on October 31, 2007.] He earned a bachelor of science degree in ecological science from the University of Edinburgh and a doctorate in biometeorology from the University of Leeds.

paceflight experience

Personal

His favourite band is rock group Garbage. He met the band in Houston, Texas when the band played there in April 2002. He told them he would be taking their albums into space with him. When he met the group for the second time in November 2002, he showed them a picture of their album spinning free in outer space. He was mildly embarrassed, because the CD was in fact a Russian bootleg and not an official pressing of their album.

Sellers also took with him a copy of Cranbrook School's charter which was signed by his fellow astronauts and then presented to the school. The school's observatory, built in 2005, is named after him.

He also took a University of Edinburgh flag into space, which he presented to the University when he and his fellow crew members visited to give a talk about STS-112. This flag can now be seen in the display cabinets behind the Reception at Old College, Edinburgh.

He was the winner of the Inspiration Award in the 2008 Sir Arthur Clarke Awards.

References

External links

* [http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/archives/sts-112/crew/intsellers.html STS-112 Pre-flight interview: Piers Sellers] — 2002
* [http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts121/interview_sellers_2006.html STS-121 Preflight Interview: Piers Sellers] — 2006, discusses the Return to Flight programme
* [http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/astronauts/english/sellers_piers.htm Spacefacts Biography of Piers Sellers] , July 17, 2006
* [http://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/piers_sellers_en.html NASA astronaut’s early career in WCRP] — Interview published 2007, detailing Sellers' career in meteorology and climate research