Billionaire clown Guy Laliberte, crew mates head for space station aboard Russian Soyuz craft

Billionaire clown heads for space station

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — A billionaire Canadian circus tycoon is on his way to the International Space Station.

A Soyuz capsule carrying Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte and two fellow astronauts lifted off on schedule Wednesday from the Baikonur launch facility atop a towering Russian rocket.

Laliberte, U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Williams and Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev got a rousing sendoff from friends and family at the Russian launch facility on the Kazakh steppe. They are expected to arrive at the orbital outpost Friday.

Laliberte plans to help publicize the world’s growing shortage of clean water. But he’s also doing his best to make the trip fun. The entertainer donned a bulbous red clown nose before boarding the capsule and brought several of the novelty noses for his crew mates.