Saturday, October 3, 2009

Guy Laliberté - Space Tourist & Rocket Man

Okay, Now I'm a tad bit jealous! I'm a bit late but today I learned that Guy Laliberte', the Canadian billionaire, is now the first clown in space! I say that jokingly of course. Some of you know that Mr. Laliberte' (notice the Mr., a sign of respect) was a former stiltwalker and fire-eater before he founded and became chief executive officer of Cirque du Soleil.

Well, he's now filled in one more square on his long but shrinking "To Do" list. And he's probably purchased himself one of the finest birthday gifts ever!

Imagine buying yourself a trip to the International Space Station to celebrate your 50 th B-Day.


Guy Laliberté will spend about 9 days at the International Space Station (ISS) on his little space vacation. It's not official how much Laliberté paid for his mission but the last space tourist, US software pioneer Charles Simonyi, paid $35 million (£22 million) and that seems to be about the going rate.



The Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Laliberte is the first Canadian civilian to enter orbit. He is travelling with Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev and American astronaut Jeffrey Williams. Laliberte' has scheduled a global broadcast from the space station on Oct. 9 to raise awareness about the world's dwindling clean water supply. Laliberte plans to return to Earth on Oct. 11, while Williams and Surayev will live on the station for nearly six months.





Here's to you Rocket Man! Happy Birthday!
You Rock!



6 comments:

Bowie Mike said...

I missed this story too. What's next in space? A bearded lady?

Unknown said...

Intrepid, I love that you are always in the know. Everytime I come here, I read about something I had not heard yet.

intrepidideas said...

Mike,

ha - ha... Who knows? Dare I say - a Geometrically and follically challenged person?

Summer,

Thanks for the compliment. I try! :) But I feel I'm usually in the "last to know" group.

Jane Turley said...

What a lucky fella! Although I wouldn't commit to a space craft without inspecting the loos - could be a potential difficult situation there:)

Rocket man is a great song. Although there's been a few times I've thought Elton could have done with a rocket himself:)

Chris said...

Wow! My birthday is Sunday and I have some nice things planned to do... but to have an extra $35M hanging around to go to the space station... WELL! Pretty amazingly cool, I'd say. Not sure I'd want to spend it all in one place like that, though.

intrepidideas said...

Chris,

I think I understand what you mean about the 35M. :) Have a very Happy Birthday!