RUSSIA: Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte prepares for his first flight into space; Laliberte will be the world's seventh, and Canada's first, space tourist

Record ID: 755601

  • Title: RUSSIA: Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte prepares for his first flight into space; Laliberte will be the world's seventh, and Canada's first, space tourist
  • Date: 9th September 2009
  • Summary: STAR CITY, MOSCOW, RUSSIA (SEPTEMBER 8, 2009) (REUTERS) MODULE SIMULATOR IN HANGAR CONTROL DECK NEAR MODULE (SOUNDBITE) (English) FLIGHT COMMANDER, JEFF WILLIAMS, SAYING: "We - Max and I - have only been training with Guy for now a couple of weeks and we're ready, we are ready for the flight." OFFICIALS (SOUNDBITE) (French) SPACE TOURIST AND OWNER OF CIRQUE SU SOLEIL, GUY LALIBERTE, SAYING: "We are ready, we had exams, two whole days, today with the ISS and then tomorrow with the Soyuz capsule. We have already been preparing and training for several weeks, we've done the simulations, we're ready." STAR CITY WORKERS WATCHING FROM MEZZANINE (SOUNDBITE) (English) SPACE TOURIST AND OWNER OF CIRQUE SU SOLEIL, GUY LALIBERTE, SAYING: "I feel great. I am with two amazing men I feel totally in confidence, I have the butterfly in the stomach, last week it was no more months but weeks, before landing and soon it will be days so, I am totally excited." JOURNALISTS/CAMERA FILMING CREW MEMBER COSMONAUT MAXIM SURAEV COSMONAUTS GO INTO MODULE SIMULATOR WIDE OF MODULE (SOUNDBITE) (English) STAR CITY RUSSIAN SPACE TRAINING CENTRE DIRECTOR, SERGEI KRIKALYOV, SAYING: "He is not a professional of course but he is doing well on his level." VARIOUS OF REPLACEMENT CREW SIGNING DOCUMENTS AT DESK U.S., RUSSIAN AND CANADIAN FLAGS ON DESK STAR CITY OFFICIALS
  • Embargoed: 24th September 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVA6ZI9YOWOOXAWGEQ897A86SUY3
  • Story Text: Canadian billionaire and founder of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberte, said on Tuesday (September 8) he is excited about his upcoming trip into space on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft later this month.
    Laliberte will be flying together with U.S. astronaut and flight commander Jeff Williams and Russian flight engineer Maxim Suraev.

    "We - Max and I - have only been training with Guy for now a couple of weeks and we're ready, we are ready for the flight," said Williams.
    Laliberte, a former street artist, will become the world's seventh space tourist.

    "We are ready, we had exams, two whole days, today with the ISS (International Space Stations) and then tomorrow with the Soyuz capsule. We have already been preparing and training for several weeks, we've done the simulations, we're ready," said Laliberte before the final training session at the Russian cosmonaut centre Star City near Moscow.
    According to Laliberte, the soon-to-be space tourist has dreamed of making such a journey since going to a Soviet exhibition on space in Canada in 1967.
    Laliberte, 49, will blast-off from the Russian launch site on the Kazakh steppe aboard a Soviet-designed Soyuz rocket with a Russian cosmonaut and a U.S. astronaut on September 30.
    Although he declined to say exactly how much the trip had cost him, Laliberte was willing to reveal that he had paid a similar amount to previous space tourists, between $20 million and $35 million.

    "I feel great. I am with two amazing men I feel totally in confidence, I have the butterfly in the stomach, last week it was no more months but weeks, before landing and soon it will be days so, I am totally excited," he said.
    Laliberte is also planning a performance of a poem on the Earth's water scarcity from the International Space Station during his 12-13 day mission. The performance will be the first ever artistic event to take place in space.
    Under the theme "Moving Stars and Earth for Water", the poetic social mission will take place on October 9, 2009 in 14 cities simultaneously around the world and is scheduled to take place over 120 minutes.
    The event will take place in Montreal, Moscow, Santa Monica, New York City, Johannesburg, Mumbai, Marrakech, Sydney, Tokyo, Tampa, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, London and the International Space Station.
    The Russian federal space agency launches a space craft periodically to relieve the crew of the International Space Station, and it is during these missions that private citizens or space tourists can pay to travel into space.

    "He (Laliberte) is not a professional of course but he is doing well on his level," said Russian Space Training Centre Director Sergei Krikalyov.
    The forbes.com Web site estimates that Laliberte has a net worth of around $2.5 billion.
    Cirque du Soleil is credited with revitalizing the circus industry with acrobats, live music and dance. It began with 20 street performers in 1984 but now employs around 4,000 people around the world.
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