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Billionaire circus "clown" blasts off for space station
Sep 30, 2009, 8:04 GMT
Baikonur/Moscow - A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying the billionaire chief of the Canadian Cirque du Soleil company lifted off on Wednesday, headed for the International Space Station, Russian state TV reported.
Guy Laliberte, 50, who paid some 35 million dollars for his 12-day space journey, wore a clown's red nose as he prepared for the launch from the Baikonur facility in Kazakhstan.
The Canadian space tourist, along with Russian astronaut Maxim Surayev and NASA crew-member Jeffrey Williams, are due to arrive at the space station on October 2nd. The two astronauts are set to stay on the station until March 2010.
Laliberte started his circus career as, amongst other roles, a stilt-walker, and went on to create the innovative circus troupe in the 1980s.
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