BAIKONUR (KAZAKHSTAN) - THE billionaire founder of the Cirque du Soleil show blasted off on a Russian rocket yesterday, bringing his trademark humour and energy into the clinical world of space flight.

Mr Guy Laliberte, 50, a Canadian citizen, is estimated to have spent US$35 million (S$49 million) on a two-week visit to the International Space Station (ISS), which he is scheduled to reach tomorrow.

He blasted off on schedule from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome, located in neighbouring Kazakhstan, alongside a professional Russian cosmonaut and US astronaut.

Mr Laliberte, a former fire-eater and stiltwalker, is taking nine red clown noses into space - one for each member of the ISS crew.

'I am going with my sense of humour,' he said.

His mission, however, has a serious aim - to raise awareness of global water shortages worldwide and of his foundation, which works to preserve the earth's freshwater reserves.

Mr Laliberte, who founded the Cirque du Soleil in 1984, is the seventh person to go into space as a tourist. He began his rise to become the world's 261st richest man, with a fortune valued at US$2.5 billion, as a street performer in his native Quebec, according to Forbes magazine.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS