Sellers

Personal data:

Birthdate:  11 Apr 1955 Birthplace:  Crowborough / UNITED KINGDOM Marital status:  married Children:  two Selection date:  01 May 1996 Selection group:  NASA-16 Job:  MSP Date of death:  23 Dec 2016 Age:  61 yr Place of death:  Houston, Texas

Spaceflights:

EVA′s:

Additional information

• Born in Crowborough, England on 11 April 1955, the son of an Army officer, Piers John Sellers was the second eldest of five boys and attended Tyttenhanger Lodge Pre- preparatory School in Seaford, East Sussex before moving to Cranbrook School in Kent where he remained until 1973. While there, he also became an RAF cadet, cleared to fly both powered and unpowered aircraft. ln 1976 Sellers received a B.Sc in ecological science from the University of Edinburgh and then a doctorate in biometeorology from the University of Leeds in 1981.
• Sellers took up an opportunity to advance his ecological research when he began work at NASA′s Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland, in 1982. There, he studied interactions between the atmosphere and the biosphere and worked on computerised data from integrated platforms such as aircraft, satellites and ground sensors. Primarily involved in theoretical atmospheric science, he applied a deep-seated interest in the physical environment to complex modelling. Keen to become an astronaut, his first attempt in 1984 was frustrated by his lack of US citizenship but in 1991 he became a naturalised citizen and was successfully admitted to the Group 16 cadre of 44 astronauts as a mission specialist, recruited to participate in expeditionary tours at the International Space Station. After two years of initial training, Sellers was assigned to duty in the Computer Support Branch at the NASA Astronaut Office at the Johnson Space Center, spending some time in Moscow working on liaison activities.
• Piers Sellers spent almost seven days in space aboard Atlantis in October 2002 on the STS-112 mission, delivering the S1 integrated truss to the station and conducting three EVAs totalling 19 hr 41 min, partnered with David Wolff on installation and assembly procedures.
• Launched on 4 July 2006, STS-121 provided Sellers with a further three EVAs lasting a total 21 hr 29 min, bringing his EVA experience to 41 hr 10 min. Sellers had been assigned to fly as a mission specialist on Discovery in July 2004, replacing Carlos Noriega who had a medical issue and was removed from the crew.
• The third and final flight for Piers Sellers was STS-132 when he launched aboard Atlantis, its last mission, on 14 May 2010. The mission delivered the Russian Rassvet module to the ISS along with sundry other items and brought to 35 days 9 hr 2 min the total flight time Sellers spent on Shuttle missions. The space flights he experienced only served to endorse a sense of profound optimism for the world and its future. lmmersed in the complex and detailed analysis of Earth′s environmental changes and the influence of humans on the planet, Piers Sellers was eternally optimistic. Having participated in several satellite programmes - he was a lead scientist on NASA′s Terra satellite launched in 1998 - he wanted people to know that changes being observed are not an "end game", rather a sequence of events giving timely warning of consequences for inaction.
• Piers Sellers returned to the Goddard Space Flight Center in 2011 to continue his work on climate issues and environmental data acquisition. Concerned about the public perception of the Earth and aware of the ferociously guarded prejudice of opposing factions in the debate regarding climate change and human intervention, he strove to inform and educate the general public and participated in the film by Leonardo DiCaprio called "Before the Flood".
  Particularly motivated by the effect scientific knowledge has on minds, Piers always took time to speak to young people, students and undergraduates to ensure their sustained enthusiasm was fuelled by rational debate and the solid foundation of factual evidence, aware of information shaping opinion through prejudice. Along the way, Piers Sellers never forgot where he came from and frequently kept in touch with friends in England and at the British lnterplanetary Society. He was a passionate advocate for liberal education and non- vocational studies as an intellectual expression of all that is best in the human spirit~ a practice seemingly less common with times passing. He recognised that this is alive and well at the BIS and said so.
• ln recognition of his outstanding achievements, Piers Sellers was awarded the OBE in the 2011 New Year Honours list and received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 2016. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October 2015, Piers Sellers died on 23 December 2016 in Houston, Texas.