Portal:Spaceflight/Selected biography/June 2008

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. Born in Crowborough, Sussex, Sellers 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. 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.

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. 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, on STS-122 and STS-121, Piers has logged over 559 hours in space, including almost 41 EVA hours in 6 spacewalks. (more...)