MONTREAL - Cirque du soleil founder Guy Laliberte will become Canada's first space tourist when he blasts off on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in September, a spokeswoman for the world-renowned circus troupe said Wednesday.
The 49-year-old Laliberte, who is already in Moscow for Thursday's official announcement, will also become the third Canadian to visit the International Space Station this year.
The Quebec billionaire will be dropping in on Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk, who has just begun a six-month space station visit and is to return to Earth in November.
But fellow astronaut Julie Payette will be visiting her 55-year-old space colleague on the giant orbiting lab before Laliberte.
She is tentatively scheduled to blast off June 13 on a 16-day mission aboard the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour.
Laliberte will become the seventh private citizen to visit the orbiting space lab since April 2001.
Past visits by paying space tourists have lasted anywhere from a week to 12 days.
