Yorkshire-born astronaut inspired by Cook blasts off on great endeavour

A YORKSHIRE-born astronaut lifted off yesterday – 24 hours after being left grounded when a planned Nasa launch was aborted due to bad weather.

Although he now lives in the States, Dr Nicholas Patrick, a Nasa Johnson Space Centre graduate, was born at Ingleby Manor, near Great Ayton – the North Yorkshire village where Captain Cook's family also lived.

The aerospace engineer was due to blast off with the crew of Nasa Spacecraft Endeavour – also the name of one of Cook's ships of discovery – from Florida on Sunday.

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Dr Patrick, 45, is carrying a small version of the Colonial Red Ensign flag and a photograph of Captain Cook in tribute to the explorer who flew a similar flag from Endeavour when he sailed off into the unknown in 1768

Low cloud resulted in the countdown being called off with minutes to go on Sunday. But blast off was achieved from Cape Canaveral at 9.14 GMT – 4.14am in Florida – yesterday.

Dr Patrick is part of a small band of British-born astronauts to have made it into space. In 2006 he was part of a seven-member Discovery crew that completed a 12-day mission to the International Space Station.

Married with three children, Dr Patrick lives in Connecticut having become a US citizen in 1994. But his desire to explore dates back to his early years in Yorkshire when he lived close to where Captain James Cook once resided.

"We would go walking in the moors, and go and see the monument that was erected to him and that's one of my earliest memories actually of wanting to be an explorer," he said.