Billionaire Guy Laliberte became Canada's first space tourist -- and the world's first space clown -- when he blasted off towards the International Space Station in clear blue skies on Wednesday morning.
Laliberte, founder of the Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil, and two astronauts are on board the Russian Soyuz TMA-16 spaceship for a 12-day trip that will end at the ISS on Oct. 2.
It was a smooth launch that happened at 07:14 GMT from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome on the Kazakh steppe.
Laliberte, seen on the cabin's in-flight camera, gave two thumbs-up minutes after blast-off. He told ground control he was feeling "super."
Friends and family looked on from the ground, breaking out into chants of "Guy! Guy!" and singing Elton John's "Rocket Man" when a loudspeaker announcement said the ship was in orbit.
"I'm very happy for him. It's amazing," said Laliberte's partner, former model Claudia Barilla, with her young son in her arms. "Now we know he's up there."
Laliberte, 50, paid $35 million for his ticket to space. He plans to use the publicity to draw attention to the importance of access to clean water on Earth.
"I needed it to be the right time and for the right purpose," he was quoted as saying by the flight organizer, Space Adventures.
"This is the time. And the purpose is clear: to raise awareness on water issues to humankind on planet earth."
Laliberte plans to stream out a webcast during his journey, which will be carried live on www.onedrop.org on Oct. 9. He's due back on Earth on Oct. 11.
The former fire breather and stilt walker from Quebec City is on board the Soyuz with U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Williams, 51, and Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev, 37. They latter two will temporarily join an expanded crew of six on the ISS and will stay in orbit for 169 days.
The Soyuz team will be helping with construction of the ISS -- the largest artificial satellite, which has cost the U.S. Russia, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency more than US$100 billion.
Laliberte has become the seventh paying space tourist to travel to the ISS. He may be one of the last for several years as NASA retires its shuttle program and turns to the Russian space agency to send U.S. astronauts to the lab.
Laliberte formed Cirque Du Soleil 25 years ago. He holds a 95 per cent stake in the company, and is worth an estimated $2.5 billion. He has promised to play the clown as much as possible while in space, donning his trademark red nose and even tickling his fellow travellers while they sleep.
"I promise I will plant as much as possible nose clowns in space," he said. "So it will be not only brilliant stars but colourful stars in the future."
