[announcer] Zero and lift off of Space Shuttle
Atlantis as Columbus sets sail on a
voyage of science to the space station.
[rumbling]
[radio noise]
[tone]
My name is Compton Tucker.
I'm a NASA Goddard Earth scientist.
I had the privilege of working with
Piers Sellers.
[Piers, talking over radio] Okay, here goes.
This is Piers Sellers onboard Space Shuttle Atlantis ...
[Compton] Piers was a very dear friend of mine over
more than 35 years.
Piers was an Earth scientist and an
astronaut.
He was also my coworker, my best friend,
my roommate and my neighbor.
We worked together on several things,
published probably 10 or 15 papers
together, because Piers was working on the
theory of what
I was doing using data from
meteorological satellites.
You can describe Piers to people who
never had the pleasure of meeting him,
I think by five words:
kindness,
wit,
intelligence,
and monkey business.
He could always see the funny side of
any situation.
He took several mementos of mine into
space for me.
He took a CD called "Talking Timbuktu"
into space.
And then another time he took
two of the medals I had won for
scientific research into space.
[Piers] Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean right now ...
To all my friends at Goddard Space Flight Center,
I wish I could have brought all of you up here with me.
[Compton] I went to all of his launches and I
would sit with his family, especially
with his mother and sort of help her
understand things.
And I think that was one of the things
which comforted Piers because he
didn't want his mother to
be nervous about his spaceflight.
Both Piers and I and many other people
who work for NASA are driven by
scientific curiosity.
[Piers] All those discussions we had
Back at Goddard about how
the planet really works ...
It's extraordinary to see it from up here,
working as a complete whole:
all the atmosphere moving,
twisting and turning,
the oceans ...
It's just beautiful.
[Compton] When he
realized what his diagnosis was,
he realized the odds were strongly
against him, and he probably only had
about a year to live.
He said he was going to do all he could
to contribute to climate science, to
preserving the Earth, to satellite
observation,
things like this.
[Piers] And it really brings it together
in my mind.
So we're going to come back from this
experience with just a new take
on the way the Earth system operates.
[Compton] He wanted people to treat him as they
always had and so, as hard as that was
for us all, that's what we did. And then
if we needed to cry we would just cry
later when we weren't in his presence.
All of us in Earth science at Goddard,
we miss Piers Sellers deeply.
I think Piers was an inspirational leader.
He led from the front.
He led by doing.
Whenever I think of Piers I'm very
encouraged to do my best, also to be
more tolerant, to practice kindness and wit.
[Piers] ... and I hope to share that with you very soon,
and in the meantime, greetings
from 240 miles up,
and I look forward to seeing you.
Bye bye!
[narrator] Piers Sellers passed away in 2016 after
battling pancreatic cancer.
He was an Earth scientist and
his work continues to drive the
conversation on climate change.
Before Piers passed away, he had a
lot to say about his best friend
Compton too.
Here he is an interview from 2016.
[Piers recording] I've known Tucker, it seems like forever
and we've worked together,
and laughed together
and drunk together
for thirty something years now.
It's been the most wonderful friendship
and scientific collaboration
that I can imagine.
[narrator] This story was produced at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center by
Katie Atkinson and Micheala Sosby.
