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[announcer] Zero and lift off of Space Shuttle

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Atlantis as Columbus sets sail on a

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voyage of science to the space station.

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[rumbling]

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[radio noise]

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[tone]

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My name is Compton Tucker.

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I'm a NASA Goddard Earth scientist.

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I had the privilege of working with

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Piers Sellers.

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[Piers, talking over radio] Okay, here goes.

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This is Piers Sellers onboard Space Shuttle Atlantis ...

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[Compton] Piers was a very dear friend of mine over

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more than 35 years.

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Piers was an Earth scientist and an

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astronaut.

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He was also my coworker, my best friend,

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my roommate and my neighbor.

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We worked together on several things,

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published probably 10 or 15 papers

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together, because Piers was working on the

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theory of what

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I was doing using data from

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meteorological satellites.

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You can describe Piers to people who

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never had the pleasure of meeting him,

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I think by five words:

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kindness,

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wit,

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intelligence,

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and monkey business.

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He could always see the funny side of

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any situation.

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He took several mementos of mine into

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space for me.

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He took a CD called "Talking Timbuktu"

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into space.

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And then another time he took

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two of the medals I had won for

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scientific research into space.

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[Piers] Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean right now ...

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To all my friends at Goddard Space Flight Center,

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I wish I could have brought all of you up here with me.

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[Compton] I went to all of his launches and I

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would sit with his family, especially

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with his mother and sort of help her

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understand things.

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And I think that was one of the things

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which comforted Piers because he

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didn't want his mother to

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be nervous about his spaceflight.

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Both Piers and I and many other people

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who work for NASA are driven by

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scientific curiosity.

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[Piers] All those discussions we had

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Back at Goddard about how

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the planet really works ...

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It's extraordinary to see it from up here,

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working as a complete whole:

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all the atmosphere moving,

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twisting and turning,

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the oceans ...

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It's just beautiful.

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[Compton] When he

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realized what his diagnosis was,

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he realized the odds were strongly

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against him, and he probably only had

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about a year to live.

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He said he was going to do all he could

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to contribute to climate science, to

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preserving the Earth, to satellite

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observation,

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things like this.

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[Piers] And it really brings it together

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in my mind.

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So we're going to come back from this

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experience with just a new take

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on the way the Earth system operates.

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[Compton] He wanted people to treat him as they

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always had and so, as hard as that was

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for us all, that's what we did. And then

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if we needed to cry we would just cry

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later when we weren't in his presence.

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All of us in Earth science at Goddard,

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we miss Piers Sellers deeply.

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I think Piers was an inspirational leader.

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He led from the front.

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He led by doing.

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Whenever I think of Piers I'm very

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encouraged to do my best, also to be

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more tolerant, to practice kindness and wit.

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[Piers] ... and I hope to share that with you very soon,

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and in the meantime, greetings

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from 240 miles up,

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and I look forward to seeing you.

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Bye bye!

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[narrator] Piers Sellers passed away in 2016 after

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battling pancreatic cancer.

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He was an Earth scientist and

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his work continues to drive the

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conversation on climate change.

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Before Piers passed away, he had a

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lot to say about his best friend

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Compton too.

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Here he is an interview from 2016.

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[Piers recording] I've known Tucker, it seems like forever

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and we've worked together,

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and laughed together

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and drunk together

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for thirty something years now.

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It's been the most wonderful friendship

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and scientific collaboration

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that I can imagine.

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[narrator] This story was produced at NASA's