Clown to tickle astronauts in space

Set to be the first clown in space, Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, said he would tickle fellow astronauts.

Set to be the first clown in space, Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, said he would tickle fellow astronauts as they sleep aboard the International Space Station.

The billionaire, who will hand out clown noses to the crew, said his US $35 million trip will have a more serious purpose — promoting awareness of the world's growing shortage of clean water.

Laliberte spoke with reporters as they prepared for today’s launch in Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket, appearing behind a glass barrier to limit exposure to disease.

The 50-year-old Canadian tycoon plans a to broadcast from the space station on October 9 to promote his One Drop Foundation, which seeks to raise awareness of the threat to global water supplies.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Colombian pop star Shakira are among the activists and celebrities expected to contribute to the broadcast, to be shown on the foundation’s website.

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The performance “will be a poem that will be read to the population on Earth in 14 different cities, across five continents,” Laliberte told the Associated Press.

“When I first started Cirque du Soleil, I dreamed of seeing all six billion people on the planet wearing that little red nose, which for me is symbolic of happiness,” he said.

“After 25 years, I realise it is not just a question of a clown nose, it is a question of having a glass of clean water every day.”

He told reporters he had been tickling his fellow astronauts during training, and planned to tickle them in their sleep aboard the space station.

“I'm going there with my sense of humor and my belief that even if sometimes in life we have to do hard work, there is always room to keep humor present,” he said.

Astronauts Maxim Surayev of Russia and American Jeffrey Williams will be crammed into the Soyuz capsule with Laliberte for the launch.

Laliberte's stay on the space station is scheduled to last nine days. Surayev and Williams are due to remain until March, and Williams will take over as commander of the orbiting lab in November.