- Feb 8, 2001
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I am not a jealous man, but I would like to have the life this guy lives.
I don't have $35 million just laying around, but if I did I would seriously consider putting in a bid to walk on the moon.
For now I will just drop a bit more into the kids' college fund and hope they take up professional clowning or aerospace engineering.
Cirque du Soleil owner Guy Laliberte becomes first clown in space
Cirque du Soleil owner Guy Laliberte becomes first clown in space
Nico Hines
The Times (UK)
October 1, 2009
The world?s richest clown was fired into space yesterday, promising to take slapstick into orbit.
Guy Laliberté, the former street performer who founded Cirque du Soleil and went on to become a billionaire, was heading for the International Space Station last night on board a Soyuz rocket ? carrying a collection of red noses for the crew. He becomes Russia?s seventh ?space tourist?, with the 12-day trip costing him $35 million (£22 million).
Friends and family at the Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan sang Rocket Man after officials announced that the spacecraft had entered orbit.
Mr. Laliberté, 50, is with the US astronaut Jeffrey Williams and the Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev. The crew expect to dock with the space station tomorrow.
The Canadian entrepreneur plans to conduct what he has described as the first ?artistic and poetical mission? from space to promote a campaign to provide clean water for the world?s poorest people.
The centrepiece will be a two-hour show performed simultaneously in 14 cities on October 9, based on a poem written by the novelist Yann Martel, winner of the Man Booker Prize. Al Gore, the former US Vice-President, will take part, along with the singers Shakira and Peter Gabriel, and the Irish rock band U2.
?When I decided to join Expedition 21, I knew there would be an artistic component to my mission. I am an artist, not a scientist, so it was my duty to contribute in my own way,? Mr Laliberté said. Colonel Surayev, 37, and Colonel Williams, 51, will stay in space for 169 days. He will stay for nine days before returning with the relieved crew.
The $100 billion space station, funded by the US, Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and Canada, was begun in 1998 and is expected to be completed after six more shuttle flights.
However, doubt has been cast on the future of space tourism to the station after Nasa retires its ageing fleet of shuttles next year. It will rely on Russia?s Soyuz rockets to carry American astronauts into orbit until a replacement craft is ready in 2015.
Eric Anderson, the chief executive of Space Adventures ? the company that organises the tourism visits ? suggested that demand could prompt an increase in the number of Soyuz missions to the station. ?I keep hearing that space tourism is ending. It never seems to be true,? he said.
Countdown rituals
- Before blast-off, crew members lay red carnations at the cosmonaut monument in Star City, Moscow, and visit the office used by Yuri Gagarin
- Each has to urinate on the right rear wheel of the launch site bus carrying them to the rocket ? as Gagarin, the first human in space, did
- After returning to Earth, they drink a bottle of vodka stashed away before the launch
I don't have $35 million just laying around, but if I did I would seriously consider putting in a bid to walk on the moon.
For now I will just drop a bit more into the kids' college fund and hope they take up professional clowning or aerospace engineering.
Cirque du Soleil owner Guy Laliberte becomes first clown in space
Cirque du Soleil owner Guy Laliberte becomes first clown in space
Nico Hines
The Times (UK)
October 1, 2009
The world?s richest clown was fired into space yesterday, promising to take slapstick into orbit.
Guy Laliberté, the former street performer who founded Cirque du Soleil and went on to become a billionaire, was heading for the International Space Station last night on board a Soyuz rocket ? carrying a collection of red noses for the crew. He becomes Russia?s seventh ?space tourist?, with the 12-day trip costing him $35 million (£22 million).
Friends and family at the Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan sang Rocket Man after officials announced that the spacecraft had entered orbit.
Mr. Laliberté, 50, is with the US astronaut Jeffrey Williams and the Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev. The crew expect to dock with the space station tomorrow.
The Canadian entrepreneur plans to conduct what he has described as the first ?artistic and poetical mission? from space to promote a campaign to provide clean water for the world?s poorest people.
The centrepiece will be a two-hour show performed simultaneously in 14 cities on October 9, based on a poem written by the novelist Yann Martel, winner of the Man Booker Prize. Al Gore, the former US Vice-President, will take part, along with the singers Shakira and Peter Gabriel, and the Irish rock band U2.
?When I decided to join Expedition 21, I knew there would be an artistic component to my mission. I am an artist, not a scientist, so it was my duty to contribute in my own way,? Mr Laliberté said. Colonel Surayev, 37, and Colonel Williams, 51, will stay in space for 169 days. He will stay for nine days before returning with the relieved crew.
The $100 billion space station, funded by the US, Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and Canada, was begun in 1998 and is expected to be completed after six more shuttle flights.
However, doubt has been cast on the future of space tourism to the station after Nasa retires its ageing fleet of shuttles next year. It will rely on Russia?s Soyuz rockets to carry American astronauts into orbit until a replacement craft is ready in 2015.
Eric Anderson, the chief executive of Space Adventures ? the company that organises the tourism visits ? suggested that demand could prompt an increase in the number of Soyuz missions to the station. ?I keep hearing that space tourism is ending. It never seems to be true,? he said.
Countdown rituals
- Before blast-off, crew members lay red carnations at the cosmonaut monument in Star City, Moscow, and visit the office used by Yuri Gagarin
- Each has to urinate on the right rear wheel of the launch site bus carrying them to the rocket ? as Gagarin, the first human in space, did
- After returning to Earth, they drink a bottle of vodka stashed away before the launch
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