Astronaut revisits experience of space

A former astronaut is to relive his experiences of space travel, at an event at the University.

Piers Sellers will describe his three space missions and space walks.

Dr Sellers, a deputy director at NASA and an Edinburgh graduate, will use images and a short film to illustrate his talk at the Appleton Tower on the evening of Thursday 15 November.

Space missions

The audience will hear Dr Sellers talk about his experiences as a scientist and astronaut with NASA.

He will describe his training and preparing to become an astronaut and discuss his experiences of space launch and of being in space.

His talk will be followed by a question and answer session.

Illustrious career

Dr Sellers studied ecological science for his first degree at Edinburgh in the 1970s.

After further study, he spent time researching computer models of the Earth’s climate before being recruited by NASA in 1996.

In 2002 he became the third Briton in space, as a member of the Space Shuttle Atlantis crew.

Dr Sellers returned to space in 2006 in Space Shuttle Discovery and again in 2010 on Atlantis.

Space memento

For his final space mission, Dr Sellers took a University flag with him, which was later presented to the University.

Dr Sellers retired as an astronaut in June 2011, having logged more than 840 hours in space, including six spacewalks.

Event details

Photo copyright NASA.