Who needs a Space Shuttle? Amazing pictures of Earth captured by one man, a balloon and his compact camera

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The unearthly beauty of this image taken high above the planet would make Nasa proud.

But it didn't need millions of pounds of technology to capture.

Just a little British ingenuity that saw a standard digital camera taped to a helium balloon and floated into the sky.

Stratospheric: Robert Harrison captured images of the Earth like this one using a Canon Sure Shot camera fixed in a polystyrene box and attached to a helium balloon

Achievement: Mr Harrison guided the balloon to a height of 22 miles above the Earth's surface and was able to recover the camera as it parachuted back down to earth using a sat-nav device

Ingenious: Robert Harrison with his creation, a camera enclosed in a polystyrene box. He then used GPS tracking technology similar to an in-car sat-nav to follow its progress

Space enthusiast Robert Harrison managed to send his home-made contraption 22 miles - or 116,160 feet - above the earth's surface from his back garden.

He used GPS tracking technology similar to an in-car sat-nav to follow its progress - and an attached radio transmitter to find it when it parachutes back to earth.

The photos taken by his device were so spectacular that Nasa has been in touch to see how he achieved it.

Mr Harrison's budget of £500 might also offer inspiration to the new UK Space Agency, which launches on April 1. Based in Swindon, with only one astronaut and a budget one 50th the size of Nasa's, it will be looking for cut-price ways to reach for the sky.

Mr Harrison first got the idea to explore space after a failed attempt to take aerial pictures of his house using a remote control helicopter.

After investigating high-altitude weather balloons on the internet, he launched his first mini spacecraft, named Icarus I, in October 2008.

It took dramatic shots that spanned 1,000 miles of the Earth's surface, showing the curvature-of the earth. He has since sent a dozen capsules into space.

'My family and friends thought I was a bit mad at first but they were suitably impressed with the results,' said the married father of three from Highburton, West Yorkshire.

'The pictures speak for themselves. People think this is something that costs millions but it doesn't.'

Before launch, the camera is attached to a tiny computer programmed to trigger a photo every five minutes.

It is wrapped in loft insulation bought from a DIY store then placed in a polystyrene box.

When the balloon reaches the 22-mile-high mark it pops because the air pressure is too weak to keep the helium inside. As the box falls a mini-parachute automatically opens. Mr Harrison has recovered it from up to 50 miles away.