Red-nosed circus billionaire returns to Earth

Red-nosed circus billionaire returns to Earth - MSN News UK

Canadian circus billionaire Guy Laliberte returned to Earth on Sunday wearing his trademark clown's red nose, landing as planned in Kazakhstan after a landmark space performance to highlight water scarcity.

A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying Laliberte and a Russian-American crew touched down in the vast steppe near Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan at 0831 Moscow time (5:31 a.m. British time).

"We have just received a report from the rescue and recovery team that the descent capsule has landed," said an announcer at Mission Control outside Moscow, to hearty applause from workers.
Laliberte, a former fire-breather and founder of the Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil, spent about two weeks in space.

A Reuters reporter at Mission Control, watching a live feed from the landing site, saw Laliberte seated on a chaise longue after leaving the craft. He smiled and gave a thumbs-up gesture.

He was draped in a coat with a blanket covering his legs and his blood pressure was being monitored by the rescue and recovery team. A Russian Orthodox priest also was present.

The 50-year-old, who is worth an estimated $2.5 billion (1.6 billion pounds) and was reported to have paid more than $35 million to become Earth's No. 7 space tourist, entertained the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) and hosted a show from the space outpost.


Shared via AddThis

Circus Billionaire Says Space Trip Worth $35M

Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberte, an acrobat-turned-space tourist, is getting used to floating in weightlessness on the International Space Station and said Tuesday that the trip was more than worth the multimillion-dollar price tag.

"Yes, it's worth every penny," a smiling Laliberte told reporters via a video link, adding that weightlessness has been a joy even though he did smack his head on the ceiling three times in one day.

Laliberte, the founder of the Cirque du Soleil, paid a reported $35 million for his 12-day trip to space, arrived at the orbital lab Friday. Since then he has been settling into his new home 220 miles (354 km) above Earth and making friends with the other eight spaceflyers aboard the station.

"What I've been experiencing here has been an amazing journey so far, from takeoff to arrival to adaptation," Laliberte said during Tuesday's press conference.. "There's so much to learn, there's so much to discover, there's so much to look at."

His trip is not just a vacation, though. Laliberte has planned an ambitious performance event for Oct. 9 to communicate the importance of water conservation, an issue he campaigns for through the ONE DROP non-profit organisation he started.

Laliberte plans to use all his circus-staging skills to coordinate a simultaneous webcast featuring himself and other artists broadcasting from 14 cities around the world. He and the performers will recite a poetic story about water written by Canadian author Yann Martel.

"This is a moment to create awareness toward the situation of water in the world," Laliberte said. "I don't have 25 years, the world don't have 25 years to address the situation of water."