Robert harrison helium tank

March 26, &#; -- A typical space shuttle mission flies miles above the earth's surface and returns beautiful pictures on the way, but it involves 1, people, puts six or seven astronauts at risk and costs, depending on who's doing the counting, close to half a billion dollars.

Robert Harrison got some pretty good pictures too.

He did it with a weather balloon, a used digital camera he picked up on eBay and some duct tape.

"I thought I was going to get some nice pictures," said Harrison, a computer engineer from the British town of Highburton, West Yorkshire, "but I didn't realize I'd see the curvature of the earth, the blue band of the atmosphere and the blackness of space."

His camera rises to altitudes of about 20 miles over the English countryside.

The price per flight: about $

Harrison began his hobby two years ago, figuring it might be fun to get pictures of his