Piers Sellers, the Sussex-born third Briton in space, hopes to tour the UK with his crew and spread the word about the excitement of space travel.

Piers Sellers, originally from Crowborough but now a US citizen, returned to Earth last month following his trip on the space shuttle Atlantis.

The 47-year-old father-of-two, who lives in the US with his family, was part of a team of six astronauts on the 11-day mission to continue construction on the international space station.

From his office at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, the astronaut said: "What I hope to do is to take the crew over to Britain and do all sorts of things to raise people's awareness about what we are doing in space.

"We will try and do it in the New Year some time to help get away those post-Christmas blues."