Fire Breather Heads Into Orbit for Charity

Guy Laliberte, a former street artist, will become the world's seventh space tourist. Laliberte, a Canadian, also happens to be the multi-billionaire founder and owner of the renowned Cirque du Soleil.  A fire breather, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Laliberte says his flight will be the fulfillment of a boyhood dream.

According to the website NetworkWorld, Laliberte is taking to the sky as a "humanitarian space explorer":

Laliberté describes his upcoming space flight as a poetic social mission designed to help raise awareness for his One Drop Foundation which promotes clean drinking water initiatives across the globe.

Once in space, Laliberte plans to perform a new poem, written for the purpose of raising awareness of the need for clean water around the world. The performance will be part of an "artistic production" — and, coming from Laliberte, it's likely to be an extraordinary event.

Laliberte wil be heading into space aboard a Soviet-designed Soyuz rocket. With him will be a Russian cosmonaut and an American astronaut. He'll be training for his launch in facilities located in Star City near Moscow, while he resides at a luxury hotel.

Think outer space is the right venue for your philanthropic announcement? If so, you're in luck: There are now several organizations offering the option. In addition to the Russians, British entrepreneur Richard Branson offers space flights aboard his Virgin Galactic for a mere $200,000. Space Adventures will take you up too, though the cost is higher: more in the $2,000,000 range!

Laliberte, 49, will blast off from the Russian launch site on the Kazakh steppe on September 30.

He declined to say exactly how much the trip had cost him except that he had paid a similar amount to previous space tourists who paid between $20 million and $35 million.