Guy Laliberté
Guy Laliberté is a Canadian entrepreneur, performer, philanthropist, and private astronaut. Best known as a co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, he brought a distinctly artistic and humanitarian public profile to his 2009 orbital flight.
- Born
- September 2, 1959
- Died
- N/A
- Birthplace
- Quebec City, Quebec,Canada
Flights
1
Spacewalks
0
EVA time
N/A
In space
10 days, 21 hours, 17 minutes
Bio
Laliberté's career began in performance before he helped build Cirque du Soleil into an international entertainment company. His spaceflight was closely tied to One Drop, his water-access foundation, and to a global awareness project called the Poetic Social Mission.
He launched aboard Soyuz TMA-16 and returned on Soyuz TMA-14 after a short-duration visit to the International . While on orbit, he used the mission to public outreach around water, , and the symbolic view of the planet from space.
Laliberté's place in the archive is not only as another private visitor. His mission shows how the early commercial Soyuz visitor program could carry art, philanthropy, spectacle, and global advocacy into the ISS era.