Courtesy of AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel

Guy Laliberte, founder of world renowned Cirque du Soleil, has the honour of being Canada’s first space tourist, but not the world’s first space tourist. He is the 7^th paying space tourist to travel to the International Space Station and he may be one of the last for several years because NASA is retiring its shuttle program. After the mothballing of the US shuttle program the Russian space agency will be sending the US astronauts to the lab. Along with 2 astronauts - U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Williams and Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev - Mr. Laliberte blasted off into space aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-16 spaceship for a 12-day trip that will end at the International Space Station on Friday, October 2^nd. He will return to earth on Sunday, October 11^th.

Although Mr. Laliberte has received a lot of negative publicity for spending $35 million on a space flight, or flight of fancy, instead of using the money to do some real good in the world, he says that he plans to use the publicity to draw attention to the importance of access to clean water on Earth. While in space Mr. Laliberte will not only be a passenger but he will be taking part in some scientific experiments while visiting the International Space Station.

In case you have grandiose plans to go into space, contact Space Adventures to make your reservation.