Clown blasting off into space

Sep 30 2009 By Katy Gordon

A SPACE tourist and "circus entrepreneur" is trying to become the first clown to go into orbit.

Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberte was one of the crew on the Soyuz spacecraft when it blasted off this morning and is expected to reach the International Space Station on Friday.

Mr Laliberte, who founded international circus Cirque de Soleil, said in advance of this space flight that he planned on making the crew laugh during and he also aims to create a web event that highlights the importance of clean water.

"I'm an artistic person and a creator. I'm not a scientific. I'm not an engineer," he told the BBC.

"Life has given me some qualities, some assets and I have built up a team of very creative people around the world.

"With those people I think we'll present something that is originally creative and hopefully will have the result of sensitising people toward the situation of water in the world."

Story information courtesy of BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8281253.stm