Space shuttle Columbia and a crew of seven blasted into orbit carrying a camera partly designed by a former Clacton schoolboy.
Mark Clampin, who grew up in Clacton and went to Clacton County High School, was the team leader of the group of scientists which designed the advanced survey camera to be fitted to the Hubble space telescope.
Mark's mum, Iris, said: "Mark went straight back home after the launch to do follow-up work."
Home for Mark is Baltimore, Maryland, where he and his wife Antonella work for the Space Telescope Institute.
Columbia vaulted into the clouds from Cape Canaveral just before dawn on Friday.
The astronauts will conduct five spacewalks next week to install equipment on the 12-year-old telescope.
Published Monday, March 4, 2002
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