Cirque Founder to Perform Aboard Space Station

Moscow, Russia (AHN) – Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil, is headed to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft on what he is calling a “poetic social mission.”

Laliberte was blasted into space as a paying tourist from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:14 a.m. Eastern time. The craft will dock with the ISS on October 2.

His trip was arranged by Virginia-based Space Adventures, Ltd. at a cost of $35 million. Also aboard the craft are Soyuz Commander Maxim Suraev and NASA Flight Engineer Jeffrey Williams.

Laliberte’s 10-day stay dubbed “Poetic Social Mission” will also feature a two-hour performance of a story by Canadian poet Yann Martel on October 9. It will be broadcasted in 14 cities around the world. The founder of one of the world’s premier artistic attractions is making the journey to promote the One Drop Foundation, an organization founded by Laliberte to improve access to water.

He will return to Earth October 11, along with Commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Michael Barratt, who have been on the station since March.

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