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Canadian circus entrepreneur Guy Laliberté is about to embark on the ultimate high-flying act as the world's seventh private citizen to buy a ticket into space.

The 50-year-old, Quebec-born founder of Cirque du Soleil has a colourful résumé. He's an accordion player, a stilt walker and a fire breather – now, he'll add astronaut to that list as he prepares for a Sept. 30 launch aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule en route to the International Space Station.

Laliberté is the latest customer of Space Adventures Ltd.

The Vienna, Va.-based company is partnered with Rosocosmos (the Russian Space Agency) and sells seats for about $25 million.

“This really does represent my childhood dreams,” Laliberté said at a press conference yesterday. “Ever since I was a young child I wanted to explore. I've travelled around the world, and today I am ready to go into space.”

Tickets to space may soon become even more expensive for private citizens, according to Eric Anderson, CEO of Space Adventures.

Current seats are purchased aboard flights already slated to travel to the ISS, but those will be in high demand soon enough. NASA is retiring its fleet of space shuttles in 2010, and the replacement won't be coming until 2014 at the earliest. To continue putting astronauts into orbit, NASA too will rely on the Soyuz capsule. So Space Adventures will have to buy entirely new Soyuz missions to the ISS to stay in business.

“It would be a dedicated mission,” Anderson says. “It may well be more expensive, but there'd be more opportunities for customized activities.”

The missions would have two private citizens and one astronaut pilot, he adds. Details are being worked out and an announcement will be made once there are determined customers for a particular mission.

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